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To Stew Green Peas

A stew of green peas, lettuce, onion, butter, pepper, and salt, optionally enriched with egg, flour, sugar, or mint.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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To Stew Green Peas

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 ↓

To Stew Green Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Stew the peas

  1. Combine peas, lettuce, onion, butter, pepper, salt, and just enough water to cover the lettuce in a pot.

  2. Stew gently for 2 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Add flour and butter.

  2. Add sugar for sweetness.

  3. Add chopped mint for flavor.

  4. Beat the egg and stir it in before serving.

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

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

  4. Lettuce + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,236 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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 set its tender texture as they stew.
Lettuce
Breaks down during stewing to add moisture and a soft, mellow body.
Onion
Adds savory aromatic flavor that deepens during gentle stewing.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and smooths the texture.
Egg
Thickens the stewed liquid gently when stirred in before serving.

The step that matters

Stirring in the beaten egg. Egg proteins set with heat and can curdle or turn grainy if the liquid is too hot or boiling. Stir it in off the heat so it thickens smoothly.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, lettuce, butter, pepper, egg, flour, sugar. 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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