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Green Peas Stewed

A stew of shelled peas, lettuce, onion, butter, bacon, and cream, thickened with egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,293 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Green Peas Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Stew the peas

  1. Wash the peas and place them in a saucepan with the lettuce, onion, butter, pepper, and salt. Do not add water; the lettuce and peas will provide enough moisture.

  2. Stew gently for 1 hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Add a pinch of sugar, cream, and the beaten egg, stirring until it thickens without boiling.

  2. Curl the rashers of bacon and cook them.

  3. Serve on a hot dish, garnished with the curled bacon.

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

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

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Shelled peas
Form the main body of the dish and supply most of its flavour and texture.
Lettuce
Releases moisture as it cooks, so the peas stew without added water.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the stew.
Cream
Adds richness and body, and helps thicken the stew when combined with egg.
Egg
Sets gently in the hot liquid, thickening the stew without boiling.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg without boiling. Egg proteins set and can curdle or turn grainy if the mixture boils. Keeping the heat low and stirring while it thickens gives a smooth, lightly thickened result.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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