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Green Pea and Tomato Puree

A puree of green peas, tomatoes, and onion simmered in stock, thickened with butter and flour, served over fried bread cubes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Green Pea and Tomato Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Cook and puree

  1. Cook the green peas, tomatoes, and onion in the weak stock for 1 hour.

  2. Pass the mixture through a colander to puree.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the puree to the heat and add the butter mixed with flour, sugar, and parsley.

  2. Boil for 5 minutes.

  3. Pour the puree over a handful of fried bread dice in a serving dish.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Peas + tomatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green peas
Form the main body of the puree and give it its green colour and sweet, vegetal flavour.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that break down during cooking to thicken and brighten the puree.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the finished puree.
Flour
Thickens the puree as it heats, giving it a body that holds its shape.

The step that matters

Boil for 5 minutes after adding the butter and flour. Flour needs to be heated fully to cook out its raw taste and reach full thickening power; boiling briefly after it is stirred in helps it dissolve evenly without lumps, and the butter stays emulsified into a smooth finish.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, onion, butter, flour, sugar, parsley, bread):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, butter, flour, sugar, parsley, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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