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Steii'ed Peas and Lettuce

A stew of green peas, cabbage lettuce, gravy, butter, flour, pepper, salt, optional ham or egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 622 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Steii'ed Peas and Lettuce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the peas and lettuces thoroughly.

  2. Cut the lettuces into small pieces.

Make the stew

  1. In a stewpan, combine the peas, lettuces, and gravy.

  2. Cook until tender.

  3. Add butter and flour, then season with pepper and salt.

  4. If desired, chop the mixture finely and add ham, or thicken with egg yolks.

  5. Serve once the mixture reaches a proper thickness.

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. Cabbage + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together622 recipes

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

  2. Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

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

Green peas
Form the bulk of the stew and give it its body and sweet, vegetal flavor.
Cabbage lettuces
Soften as they cook, adding leafy texture and moisture to the stew.
Gravy
Provides the liquid that cooks the vegetables and carries the savory flavor.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the finished stew.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid so the stew becomes body-rich rather than watery.

The step that matters

Add the butter and flour, then season. Flour needs to be cooked into the hot liquid to thicken smoothly without lumps, and seasoning is best adjusted once the stew has reduced and thickened.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, lettuce, butter, flour, pepper, egg, ham):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, lettuce, butter, flour, pepper, egg, ham. 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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