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Puree of Green Peas

A puree made from boiled green peas, spinach, mint, and stock, served with fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Puree of Green Peas

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the peas

  1. Shell the peas and boil them in water for 10 minutes.

  2. Drain the peas and place them in a clean saucepan with the stock, spinach, mint, sugar, salt, and pepper.

  3. Boil until the peas are very soft.

Make the puree

  1. Remove from heat and rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

  2. Return the puree to a clean saucepan and heat it.

Serve

  1. Pour into a warm tureen and serve with fried bread.

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 + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Peas + spinachtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together550 recipes

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

  3. Spinach + minttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Mint + white peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together95 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Peas + white peppertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Peas
Form the main body of the puree, becoming soft and smooth once cooked and sieved.
White stock
Provides liquid for cooking the peas and adds savoury flavour to the puree.
Spinach leaves
Add green colour and a mild, earthy flavour to the puree.
Castor sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the savoury stock and the earthy greens.

The step that matters

Boil until the peas are very soft. Peas must be fully softened so that they rub through the sieve into a smooth puree. Undercooked peas leave a grainy texture and can hold their shape, making the puree thick and lumpy.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, spinach, mint, sugar):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, spinach, mint, 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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