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Stewed Peas

A savory dish of peas stewed with butter, cabbage, onions, parsley, sugar, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 622 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Put the peas in a pan with butter and enough cold water to cover them.

  2. Rub the peas and butter together with your fingers until well mixed.

  3. Drain off the water and transfer the peas to a stewpan.

Stew

  1. Add the shredded lettuces, green onions, parsley, sugar, and salt.

  2. Cover and stew gently over low heat for about 30 minutes.

  3. If there's too much liquid, boil it down quickly.

  4. Knead the fresh butter and flour together on a plate.

  5. Add this mixture to the peas and toss over the heat until well combined.

Serve

  1. Dish the peas and garnish with fleurons 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.

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

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

  2. Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

  4. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

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

Young peas
Form the main body of the dish and carry its sweet, fresh flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the peas.
Cabbage lettuces
Soften as they stew, adding body and moisture to the dish.
Flour
Kneaded with butter and tossed in at the end, it thickens the cooking liquid into a light sauce.

The step that matters

Boil down the liquid quickly. Excess liquid left in the pan dilutes the flavour and keeps the sauce thin. Reducing it quickly concentrates the juices so the flour-butter mixture can thicken them properly.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cabbage, lettuce, onion, parsley, sugar, flour):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cabbage, lettuce, onion, parsley, sugar, flour. 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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