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To Stew Green Peas

A simple stew of green peas, lettuce, onion, butter, pepper, and salt, optionally thickened with egg or flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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To Stew Green Peas

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine peas, sliced lettuce, sliced onion, butter, pepper, and salt in a pot.

  2. Add just enough water to cover the vegetables.

Stew and serve

  1. Stew gently for 2 hours.

  2. If desired, beat the egg and stir it in before serving, or add flour and butter for thickness.

  3. Garnish with chopped fresh mint 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.

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

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

  2. Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

  3. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  4. Lettuce + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,236 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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 main body of the stew and give it its bulk and flavour.
Lettuce
Softens as it stews, adding moisture and a mild vegetal sweetness to the broth.
Onion
Releases sugars and aromatic compounds as it cooks slowly, adding savoury depth.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and giving the stew a smoother mouthfeel.
Egg
If stirred in, it can thicken the stew slightly as its proteins set with heat.
Flour
If added, it thickens the liquid by absorbing water when heated.

The step that matters

Adding the egg before serving. Egg proteins set when heated, so stirring it into a very hot stew can scramble it into lumps. Beating it first and stirring it in gently off the heat helps it blend smoothly and thicken the liquid evenly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, lettuce, butter, pepper, egg, flour, 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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