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Stewed Peas

Stewed peas with butter, cabbage, green onions, parsley, sugar, and salt, finished with a butter‑flour roux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 622 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Combine peas, butter, and enough cold water to cover in a pan, then rub peas and butter together until mixed.

  2. Pour off excess water and transfer peas to a stewpan. Add shredded lettuces, green onions, parsley, sugar, and salt.

Stew and thicken

  1. Cover and stew gently over low heat for about 30 minutes. If there's too much liquid, boil it down quickly.

  2. Combine 2 ounces of butter and flour on a plate, knead together, then add to the peas.

  3. Toss the mixture over the heat until well combined. Serve garnished with fleurons.

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. Cabbage + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together622 recipes

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

  2. Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

  5. Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 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

Young peas
Form the main body of the dish, cooking down into a tender base.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the peas and sauce.
Cabbage lettuces
Release moisture and soften during stewing, adding body to the liquid.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, lightly bound sauce when kneaded with butter.

The step that matters

Boil down excess liquid quickly. Too much liquid thins the sauce and dilutes the peas' flavour. Boiling briskly reduces it, while gentle stewing keeps the peas tender rather than broken down.

Swap the peas

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cabbage, lettuce, onion, parsley, sugar, flour. 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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