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To Stew Green Peas

A stew of green peas cooked with cucumber, onions, ham, butter, and cream, finished with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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To Stew Green Peas

Why it works: Cucumber and peas match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 629 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Stew Green Peas

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the base

  1. In a greased stewpan, brown the cucumber slices in butter with the chopped onions.

  2. Add the peas, pepper, and salt; let stew slowly for an hour without water.

  3. If needed, add a bit of butter for moisture.

  4. Near the end, stir in the essence of ham and keep covered.

Finish the peas

  1. For the mint version, combine lettuce hearts, peas, and chopped mint in a stewpan.

  2. Mix in the butter without bruising the peas, then add water, ham, and onion.

  3. Stew for 20 minutes, shaking the pan to prevent burning.

  4. Remove the ham and onion, then stir in butter rolled in flour and cream.

  5. Boil for 5 minutes and add the powdered sugar.

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. Cucumber + peastop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 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 body of the dish, becoming soft and tender as they stew slowly.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the finished stew.
Butter
Carries flavour and adds fat, helping the vegetables brown and stay moist.
Onions
Build savoury depth and aroma as they brown with the cucumber in butter.
Cucumber
Browned in butter to add a savoury, slightly sweet flavour to the base.
Ham
Contributes salty, smoky meat flavour that seasons the peas as they stew.

The step that matters

Stewing without water. The peas must release and keep their own moisture while stewing slowly. Shaking the pan and adding a little butter helps prevent scorching on the base before the peas soften.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, peas, pepper, ham, egg, butter, cream):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, peas, pepper, ham, egg, butter, 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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