Skip to main content
Main

To Stew Green Peas

A stew of green peas, cucumber, onions, and ham essence, cooked slowly in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
To Stew Green Peas

Why it works: Cucumber and peas match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 629 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Stew Green Peas

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Slice the cucumber and brown it in butter with the chopped onions.

  2. Add the peas, pepper, and salt, and let them stew slowly for an hour without adding water.

  3. If needed, add a bit of butter for moisture.

  4. When nearly done, stir in the essence of ham and keep the pot covered while stewing.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cucumber + peastop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

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

  2. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peastop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 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 bulk of the dish, softening into a tender, stewed texture as they cook.
Cucumber
Adds a mild, vegetable body and moisture that releases into the stew as it cooks.
Onions
Browning in butter builds sweetness and savory depth as the base flavor.
Essence of ham
Adds a concentrated smoky, savory aroma stirred in near the end of cooking.

The step that matters

Stewing without added water. The peas and cucumber release their own liquid as they cook slowly under cover. Adding water dilutes the flavor, and lifting the lid lets moisture escape, so the stew can turn dry or scorched before the peas are tender.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, peas, pepper, ham, butter. 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.

You might also like

Green Peas SoupGreen Peas Soup35 recipesGreen PeasGreen Peas8 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes