Why it works: Peas and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,887 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
To Stew Peas for Sauce for Lamb, Veal, Chickens, &C
Ingredients
Directions
In a stewpan, combine the peas, butter, sugar, and salt.
Cover the stewpan and simmer the peas until nearly done.
Add the seasoned cullis and continue to stew until the peas are tender.
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.
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Peas + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,887 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Peas + sugartop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,928 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Young green peas
- Form the main body of the dish and soften into a tender, sweet base as they stew.
- Fresh butter
- Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel, helping the peas stew gently without drying out.
- Sifted sugar
- Adds a touch of sweetness that rounds out the natural flavor of the young peas.
- Seasoned cullis
- Adds concentrated savory body and flavor that blends into the stewed peas.
The step that matters
Simmer covered until nearly done. Gentle, covered simmering keeps the peas moist and tender without boiling them hard, which can break them down and toughen the skins unevenly. Adding the cullis only after the peas are nearly done lets them finish stewing without overcooking.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar):
- Almondfits better
- Pecansfits better
- Filbertfits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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.
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