Why it works: Chive and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 261 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Puree of Peas
Ingredients
Directions
Stew the peas with butter, salt, sugar, chives, lettuce, and parsley until tender.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve or tamis cloth.
Add the seasoned cullis and reduce the mixture over heat.
Serve the purée with veal, beef, or mutton.
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.
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Chive + lettucetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together261 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Chive + parsleytop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,150 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,483 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,293 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Peas + chivetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together227 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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 purée, giving it its bulk and vegetable flavor.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the puree.
- Seasoned cullis
- Adds concentrated savory body and flavor as the mixture reduces.
- Cos lettuce
- Contributes moisture and a soft, pulpy texture when stewed and sieved.
The step that matters
Rubbing through the sieve. Pressing the cooked mixture through a fine sieve or tamis breaks down fibers and skins, producing a smooth purée. Skipping or rushing this leaves the texture grainy and fibrous.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, chive, lettuce, parsley):
- Chestnutfits better
- Chickpeafits better
- Lentilsfits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, chive, lettuce, parsley. 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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