Skip to main content
Main

Stewed Green Peas

A stew of green peas, lettuce, egg yolks, cream, and sugar.

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

Why it works: Peas and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,293 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Stewed Green Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Stew the peas

  1. Put the peas and water in a pan.

  2. Add the cut lettuces and a little salt.

  3. Stew gently until the peas are soft.

Finish with cream

  1. Add the sugar, beaten egg yolks, and cream.

  2. Stir well but do not allow to boil.

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

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

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Peas + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 give it its soft, tender texture.
Young lettuces
Add moisture and a soft, silky body as they stew down with the peas.
Egg yolks
Thicken the liquid into a smooth, custard-like texture when heated gently.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel to the finished dish.
Sugar
Adds a touch of sweetness that balances the savoury peas and salt.

The step that matters

Stir well but do not allow to boil.. Egg yolks set when heated, but high heat makes them curdle and turn grainy. Keeping the mixture just below boiling and stirring constantly lets it thicken smoothly.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, egg, cream, sugar):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, egg, cream, sugar. 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 PeasGreen Peas229 recipesGreen Peas SoupGreen Peas Soup35 recipesCreamy Lettuce SoupCreamy Lettuce Soup8 recipesLettuce SoupLettuce Soup8 recipes