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Puree of Green Peas

A smooth puree of boiled green peas seasoned with salt, pepper, mint, and cream, served on fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Puree of Green Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cooking liquid

  1. Shell the peas and set them aside in a cold place.

  2. Boil the pods in salted water for 20 minutes.

  3. Strain the pods and return the water to the pot with the peas and mint.

Cook and press the peas

  1. Boil until the peas are soft enough to rub through a colander.

  2. Press the peas through the colander, adding 1 cup of the cooking water.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, then return to the colander.

Thicken and serve

  1. In a separate pan, cook the flour in butter for 3 minutes to make a roux.

  2. Add the roux to the peas as they begin to simmer and cook for 1 minute.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the heated cream mixed with a tiny bit of baking soda.

  4. Serve the puree on squares of fried bread on a hot platter.

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. Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Mint + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,372 recipes

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

  5. Peas + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Peas
Form the bulk of the puree, giving body and a sweet, fresh green flavor.
Flour
Thickens the puree as a roux, helping it hold its body.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished puree.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness when stirred in off the heat.
Mint
Adds a fresh aroma that lifts the sweetness of the peas.

The step that matters

Stir in the cream off the heat. Cream can split or curdle when it boils, so removing the puree from the heat before adding it keeps the finish smooth and rich.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, pepper, flour, butter, cream, bread):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, pepper, flour, butter, cream, 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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