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Peas Francois

A stew of peas, onion, lettuce, butter, ketchup, and artichoke bottoms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Peas Francois

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the peas

  1. In a saucepan, combine peas, onion, lettuces, water, salt, pepper, mace, and nutmeg.

  2. Cover and stew for 15 minutes.

  3. Add butter rolled in flour, ketchup, and burnt butter.

  4. Cover and simmer for another 15 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally.

Serve

  1. Serve the peas and sauce in a dish, garnished with fried artichoke bottoms.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Onion + cabbagetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Peas
Form the main body of the dish and provide most of its sweet, vegetal flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and with the flour it thickens the cooking liquid into a sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cooking liquid into a smooth, lightly bound sauce.
Lettuces
Add moisture and a tender, mild body that breaks down during stewing.
Spanish onion
Adds savory depth and sweetness as it softens during stewing.

The step that matters

Adding the butter rolled in flour. Flour must be fully incorporated and the pan kept covered and gently simmering so the starch hydrates evenly and thickens the sauce without lumps or scorching.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, onion, cabbage, pepper, nutmeg, butter, 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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