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Green Peas a LA Creme

A simple dish of boiled green peas simmered in butter, salt, sugar, and thick cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Green Peas a LA Creme

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the peas

  1. Boil the peas for 15 minutes, then drain them completely.

  2. In a stewpan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  3. Add the drained peas and shake until the butter simmers.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the salt, sugar, and cream.

  2. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes until the peas are tender but not bursting.

  3. Serve hot in the sauce.

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

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

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

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

  3. Peas + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Peas + creamtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Young peas
Provide the main body of the dish and its tender, sweet vegetable flavor.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and forms the buttery sauce the peas cook in.
Thick cream
Adds moisture and richness, thickening the butter into a creamy coating.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the savory salt and brings out the peas' flavor.

The step that matters

Cook until tender but not bursting. Peas keep cooking in the hot sauce, and overcooking breaks down their skins and starch, leaving them mushy and dull in texture. Checking them during the 5 to 10 minutes keeps them intact and bright.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Filbertfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, cream. 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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