Name: To Stew Green Peas
Ingredients: 1 quart of green peas; 1 lettuce, sliced; 1 onion, sliced; 2 tablespoons of butter; ¼ teaspoon of pepper; ¼ teaspoon of coarse sea salt; 1 teaspoon of white powdered sugar (optional); 1 tablespoon of chopped mint

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 ↓

To Stew Green Peas

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

In a pot, combine the peas, sliced lettuce, sliced onion, butter, pepper, salt, and just enough water to cover the vegetables.
Stew gently for two hours.
If desired, add a teaspoon of white powdered sugar for sweetness.
Chop mint and stir it in before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,137 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,293 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,562 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lettuce + minttop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together569 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Green peas: Form the bulk of the dish and provide its main body and sweet vegetable flavour.
Lettuce: Softens as it stews, adding moisture and a mild, gentle body to the dish.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and giving the stewed vegetables a smooth mouthfeel.
Onion: Contributes savoury depth and aroma as it softens during the long gentle stew.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, lettuce, butter, pepper, sugar, mint):

Cucumberfits better
Asparagusfits better
Capsicumfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, lettuce, butter, pepper, sugar, mint. 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.