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Peas, Green, Puree, Vegetarian

A vegetarian green pea puree served with toast and poached or fried eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and peas 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 ↓

Peas, Green, Puree, Vegetarian

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Cut the lettuce into shreds.

  2. Place the shredded lettuce in an enamelled saucepan with the shelled peas and butter or oil.

  3. Cook the peas gently in the butter with a spoonful or two of water until soft.

Make the puree

  1. In another pan, boil the pea shells with water, a little salt, and sugar until reduced and flavored.

  2. Add some of the flavored liquid from the shells to the peas.

  3. Rub some shells through a sieve into the peas.

  4. Alternatively, mash the peas with a fork before adding the liquid.

  5. Stir in the white thickening.

  6. Add a few drops of green coloring.

  7. Season to taste.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with toast and poached or fried eggs.

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. Lettuce + peastop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Peas
Provide the main body and sweet, green flavor of the puree.
Butter or olive oil
Carries flavor and gives the puree a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
White thickening
Starch swells when heated, thickening the puree to a smooth consistency.
Lettuce
Adds moisture and a mild, fresh green flavor as it softens.

The step that matters

Thicken the puree gently. Starch thickeners like cornstarch or flour must be heated enough to swell and lose their raw taste, but stirring in too much or boiling vigorously can leave lumps or a pasty texture. Add the thickener to the warm puree and stir steadily until smooth and lightly thickened.

Swap the lettuce

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

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

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