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Peas Stewed with Mint

A stew of peas, cabbage lettuce hearts, mint, ham, onion, butter, and cream, simmered until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Peas Stewed with Mint

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine chopped lettuce hearts, green peas, and chopped mint in a stewpan.

  2. Add pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Mix in the butter without bruising the peas.

  4. Pour in the pump water.

  5. Add the ham and whole onion.

Stew and finish

  1. Place on the fire to stew.

  2. Stir constantly for about 20 minutes until tender.

  3. Remove the ham and onion.

  4. Add the butter rolled in flour and cream.

  5. Boil for 5 minutes.

  6. Stir in the powdered sugar.

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 + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

  3. Lettuce + peastop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  5. Lettuce + minttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together569 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 stew and become tender and sweet during slow cooking.
Cabbage lettuce hearts
Add bulk and soft texture, breaking down into the stew as it cooks.
Butter rolled in flour
Thickens the stew and gives it a smooth, rich body when boiled.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky texture to the thickened stew.
Ham
Flavours the stewing liquid with savoury, salty meat notes.

The step that matters

Stir in the butter rolled in flour and cream, then boil. Flour thickens only when it reaches a boil and is stirred smooth, so adding it without stirring can leave lumps. Boiling also cooks out the raw starch taste. Stir steadily so the cream does not scorch on the base of the pan.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, lettuce, peas, pepper, butter, egg, ham. 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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