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Green Peas Puree

A smooth puree of boiled green peas, milk or cream, butter, and seasoning, served as a garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Green Peas Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the puree

  1. Boil the shelled peas in slightly salted water with baking soda or sugar until tender.

  2. Drain the water and rub the peas through a sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. In a saucepan, combine the puree with enough milk or cream to moisten and a small piece of butter.

  2. Season the puree with pepper and salt.

  3. Stir the mixture over medium heat until hot.

  4. Serve as a garnish for cutlets or other dishes.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

  3. Peas + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,309 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

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

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Shelled peas
Form the main body of the puree once cooked and pressed through a sieve.
Baking soda or sugar
Baking soda helps peas soften and keep a bright green colour; sugar adds mild sweetness.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and smoothness so the puree is spreadable and silky.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the puree a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boil the peas until fully tender. Peas must be cooked through so they break down smoothly when pressed through a sieve. Undercooked peas leave a grainy, fibrous puree that will not become smooth even after sieving.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, butter, pepper):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Cocoafits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, butter, pepper. 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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