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Petits Pois a LA Parisienne

A sweet and savory side dish of small peas cooked with butter, sugar, parsley, and spring onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 25,843 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Petits Pois a LA Parisienne

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the peas

  1. Wash the peas and place them in a stewpan with butter.

  2. Add salt, sugar, cold water, parsley, and spring onions.

  3. Cover and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes.

  4. Remove the parsley and onions.

Finish and serve

  1. Incorporate ½ ounce of fresh butter mixed with 1 teaspoon refined flour into the peas.

  2. Mix well, taste for sweetness, and add more sugar if needed.

  3. Serve immediately as a side dish.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together25,843 recipes

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

  2. Peas + parsleytop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,885 recipes

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

  3. Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together5,460 recipes

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

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together28,563 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Peas
Form the main body of the dish, cooking down gently in their own moisture.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the cooked peas.
Refined flour (in the method)
Thickens the butter and juices into a light, glossy coating for the peas.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the natural earthiness of the peas.

The step that matters

Adding the butter and flour mixture. Flour must be fully blended into the butter before it goes in, and the peas stirred well, so the liquid thickens smoothly without lumps or a floury taste.

Flavor stand-ins for the peas

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

  1. Chickpeabetter flavor fit
  2. Chestnutbetter flavor fit
  3. Almondbetter flavor fit
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, parsley, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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