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To Stew Green Peas

A stew of green peas, cucumber, onions, and ham, flavored with pepper, salt, mint, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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To Stew Green Peas

Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Stew Green Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Make the first pot

  1. Brown cucumber slices in butter with chopped onions in a pan.

  2. Add peas, pepper, and salt; stew slowly for an hour without water, adding more butter if needed.

  3. Near the end, stir in the essence of ham and keep covered.

Make the mint version

  1. For the mint version, combine lettuce hearts, young peas, and chopped mint in a stewpan.

  2. Add pepper, salt, and butter; mix gently to avoid bruising the peas.

  3. Add water, ham, and onion; stew for 20 minutes, shaking the pan to prevent burning.

  4. Remove ham and onion, then stir in flour‑coated butter and cream; boil for 5 minutes.

  5. Finish with pounded sugar.

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. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cabbage + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together622 recipes

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

  4. Cucumber + minttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together884 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Green peas
Form the body of the stew and provide its sweet, fresh flavor.
Butter
Browns the vegetables and adds richness and fat to the stew.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the finished stew.
Cabbage lettuce hearts
Supply bulk and gentle moisture as they soften during stewing.
Onions
Build savory depth as they soften and brown in butter.

The step that matters

Stew without water and shake the pan. Without added water, the peas and butter can scorch on the base. Shaking the pan and keeping the heat gentle prevents burning while the vegetables release their own juices.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, peas, pepper, ham, cabbage, lettuce, mint):

  1. Cauliflowerfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, peas, pepper, ham, cabbage, lettuce, mint. 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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