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Puree of Peas

A creamy pea puree mixed with sweetbreads, mushrooms, and herbs, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Puree of Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Blanch the sweetbreads in boiling water until tender.

  2. Salt the sweetbreads and drain.

  3. When cool, cut the sweetbreads into cubes.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, mix flour and butter, stir over heat until it bubbles.

  2. Add white stock, grated onion, chopped parsley, salt, and cayenne; cook until smooth.

  3. Add the can of mushrooms, cream, and sweetbreads; cook together.

Make the pea puree

  1. Cook the green peas or drain the canned peas.

  2. Rub the peas through a sieve.

  3. Return the pea puree to the heat and cook until dry.

  4. Add butter, salt, and pepper.

Shape and serve

  1. Pour the pea puree into a pastry bag and shape into nests or rounds.

  2. Fill the centers with the sweetbreads and garnish with parsley.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Provide the main meaty filling, becoming tender when blanched and then cubed.
Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a smooth, binding base for the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and giving the puree a smooth mouthfeel.
White stock
Supplies the liquid for the sauce, adding savory depth to the thickened base.
Green peas
Form the puree base, giving the dish its color, sweetness and body when sieved.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the sauce and rounding its flavor.

The step that matters

Cooking the pea puree until dry. Pureed peas hold a lot of water. Reducing them on the heat until thick keeps the puree firm enough to pipe into nests without spreading or running.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, chicken, onion, pepper, mushroom, cream):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, chicken, onion, pepper, mushroom, cream. 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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