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Green Peas a LA Francaise

A French-style green pea dish with butter, herbs, lettuce, onions, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Green Peas a LA Francaise

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the peas

  1. Combine green peas, melted butter, sweet herbs, chives, lettuce, onions, salt, and sugar in a stewpan.

  2. Boil slowly, stirring occasionally until the peas are tender.

  3. Remove the herbs and lettuce, then add the butter rolled in flour.

Finish and serve

  1. In another method, melt butter in a stewpan, add peas, salt, and sugar, and stew until done, stirring occasionally.

  2. After 30 minutes, add the beaten egg yolks and stir until mixed and warm.

  3. Serve immediately.

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. Chive + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together261 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Chive + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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

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

  5. Chive + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,168 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 dish and provide most of its sweet, tender texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the peas and thickens the liquid when rolled in flour.
Egg yolks
Thicken the liquid gently as they warm, giving the peas a smooth, creamy body.
Cos lettuce
Adds moisture and a mild sweetness while the peas cook, then is removed.
Onions
Contribute savoury aroma and depth of flavour during slow cooking.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken when heated but can curdle or scramble if they get too hot or are added to boiling liquid. Stir them in over gentle heat, just until the mixture is warm and lightly thickened.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, butter, chive, lettuce, sugar, flour, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, butter, chive, lettuce, sugar, flour, egg. 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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