Name: Puree of Green Peas
Ingredients: 1½ pints fresh shelled green peas; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 teaspoons pounded sugar; ½ handful parsley, chopped; 2 green onions, chopped; consommé or white broth, as needed; slices of bread, cut into dice and fried

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Puree of Green Peas

Ingredients

1½ pints fresh shelled green peas
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons pounded sugar
½ handful parsley, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
consommé or white broth, as needed
slices of bread, cut into dice and fried

Directions

Make the puree

In a stewpan, combine the peas, butter, sugar, parsley, and green onions over low heat until thoroughly stewed.
Pound the mixture in a mortar and rub it through a cloth.

Finish and serve

Moisten the puree with consommé or white broth and keep it near the fire to simmer without boiling.
When serving, add the fried bread cubes.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Peas + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together804 recipes

Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).
Peas + parsleytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,885 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Peas + oniontop 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

Fresh shelled green peas: Form the main body of the puree, giving it its bulk and vegetable flavour.
Butter: Adds fat and a smooth, rich mouthfeel to the puree.
Pounded sugar: Adds a touch of sweetness that rounds out the flavour of the peas.
Consommé or white broth: Thins the puree to a pourable consistency while adding savoury depth.

The step that matters

Simmer without boiling. Once the puree is moistened, a gentle simmer keeps it smooth and evenly heated. Boiling can cause it to thicken unevenly, separate, or lose fresh colour and flavour.

Swap the parsley

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

Garlicfits better
Cinnamonfits about as well
Capersfits about as well
Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, butter, sugar, onion, bread. 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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Puree of Green Peas