Why it works: Cabbage and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 622 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Petits Pois a LA Basquaise
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Trim and wash the lettuces, then cut them into fine shreds.
In a saucepan, combine the peas, lettuces, onion, parsley, and salt.
Add enough cold water to cover the contents and a lump of loaf sugar.
Cook
Cover and cook over medium heat for about 25 minutes.
Remove the parsley and onion.
Knead the butter with the flour and add it to the peas.
Cook for another 10 minutes, seasoning with pepper and more salt if needed.
Serve
Dish up and serve, optionally garnished with Fleurons of puff pastry.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Cabbage + lettucetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together622 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,483 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
-
Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,293 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,001 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned 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
- Green peas
- Form the main body of the dish and provide its sweet, tender texture.
- Cabbage lettuces
- Break down into soft shreds that add moisture and a mild, sweet body to the stew.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the cooking liquid.
- Flour
- Kneaded with butter and stirred in, it thickens the cooking liquid.
The step that matters
Adding the butter and flour mixture. Flour thickens best when it is evenly blended with fat before entering hot liquid. Kneading the butter and flour together and stirring them in gradually helps prevent lumps and keeps the sauce smooth.
Flavor stand-ins for the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, lettuce, onion, parsley, butter, flour, sugar):
- Chestnutbetter flavor fit
- Chickpeabetter flavor fit
- Lentilsbetter flavor fit
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, lettuce, onion, parsley, butter, flour, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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