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Green Peas a l’Ancienne

A French-style green peas dish cooked with lettuce, butter, cream, egg yolk, white pepper, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Green Peas a l’Ancienne

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Shell the peas.

  2. Keep the peas wrapped in a wet napkin.

  3. Clean the lettuce head and tie it.

Cook the peas

  1. Place the lettuce in a saucepan with the peas.

  2. Season the mixture with a pinch of salt.

  3. Cover the saucepan with water.

  4. Add the butter to the saucepan.

  5. Cook for 15 minutes.

  6. Remove the lettuce from the saucepan.

Finish and serve

  1. Thicken the peas with cream diluted with the egg yolk.

  2. Add white pepper to the mixture.

  3. Add powdered sugar to the mixture.

  4. Let the mixture thicken for 5 minutes.

  5. Serve immediately in a tureen.

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

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

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

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Young green peas
Provide the main body and sweet, fresh flavour of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the peas.
Cream
Enriches the sauce and helps it thicken to a smooth consistency.
Egg yolk
Thickens the cream mixture through gentle setting and adds richness.
Lettuce
Adds moisture and a mild, sweet vegetable note while the peas cook.

The step that matters

Thickening the peas with cream and egg yolk. Egg yolk sets when heated, but if the peas are too hot or boiling when it is added, it can scramble and turn grainy. Adding the diluted mixture gradually off the heat keeps the sauce smooth and creamy.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, lettuce, butter, cream, egg, 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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