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Peas, Green

A sautéed green pea dish with diced ham, butter, stock, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Peas, Green

Why it works: Nutmeg and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Peas, Green

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the peas

  1. In a skillet, fry the onion in butter until lightly browned.

  2. Add the flour and diced ham, stirring for 1-2 minutes.

  3. Stir in the peas, stock, sugar, and nutmeg.

  4. Season with salt and pepper, then simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve

  1. Serve warm.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 its fresh, vegetal flavour.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty depth and a meaty bite to the peas.
Butter
Carries the onion's flavour and adds richness when frying.
Flour
Lightly thickens the stock so the peas are coated rather than swimming.
Onion
Builds a sweet, aromatic base once softened and browned in butter.

The step that matters

Simmering the peas with stock. Simmering gently for the full 10 minutes, stirring, lets the flour thicken the stock evenly and softens the peas without scorching the bottom of the pan.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, butter, flour, onion, sugar, nutmeg, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, flour, onion, sugar, nutmeg, pepper. 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.

More green peas recipes

Boiled 92Stewed 36Preserved 26Creamed 22Soup 14French 13 See all 150 →

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