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Old Peas, to Stew

A stew of soaked old peas cooked with butter or meat, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,331 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Old Peas, to Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the peas in water overnight or for 30 minutes if using fine boilers.

  2. In a pot, add the soaked peas and enough water to cover them.

  3. Add butter or a piece of beef or pork.

Stew and serve

  1. Stew gently until the peas are soft and the meat is tender.

  2. If using fresh meat, add salt and pepper to taste.

  3. Serve the peas around the meat.

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

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

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

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

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Dried peas
Form the bulk of the dish; they soften during slow stewing into a tender base.
Butter or beef/pork
Adds fat and savoury flavour to the stewed peas.

The step that matters

Stew gently until the peas are soft and the meat is tender. Gentle, low heat lets the peas soften and the tough connective tissue in meat break down slowly. Rapid boiling can break the peas apart and leave the meat tough.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Walnutfits better
  2. Black-eyed peafits better
  3. Almondfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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