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To Stew Green Peas a Mild Way

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

To Stew Green Peas a Mild Way

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. Put the peas and chopped lettuce in a stew pan with a little water.

  2. Stew gently until the peas are tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Add cream, sugar, and egg yolks, stirring over low heat without boiling.

  2. Season with salt before serving.

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 + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

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

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Young peas
Form the main body of the stew and give it a sweet, fresh flavour.
Young lettuces
Soften into the stew, adding moisture and a mild, vegetal body.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the stew.
Egg yolks
Thicken the stew as they gently set with heat, giving it body.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks without boiling. Egg yolks set when heated, but if the stew boils they can curdle and turn grainy. Stirring over low heat keeps the custard-like thickening smooth.

Swap the lettuce

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, cream, sugar, egg, 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.

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