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To Stew Green Peas

Young green peas and cabbage lettuce hearts stewed with ham and onion, then finished with butter, cream and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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To Stew Green Peas

Why it works: Cabbage and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 622 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Stew Green Peas

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a stewpan, combine the cabbage hearts, green peas, and chopped mint.

  2. Add pepper and salt, then mix in the butter without bruising the peas.

Stew

  1. Pour in the water, add the ham and onion, and place on the heat to stew until tender, about 20 minutes.

  2. Shake the pan constantly to prevent burning.

Finish

  1. Once tender, remove the ham and onion, then stir in flour-coated butter and cream.

  2. Boil for 5 minutes, then add the 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. Cabbage + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together622 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

  5. Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 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
Forms the bulk of the dish and gives its fresh, sweet flavour.
Cabbage lettuce hearts
Soften during stewing, breaking down to add body to the liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the stew.
Cream
Adds richness and body, softening the texture of the finished stew.
Loaf sugar
Adds gentle sweetness that rounds out the savoury flavours.

The step that matters

Boiling after adding the flour-coated butter and cream. Flour thickens liquid only when it is brought to a boil and held there, which cooks out its raw starch. Boiling for the full 5 minutes gives a smooth, properly thickened stew, while under-boiling leaves it thin and tasting of raw flour.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, lettuce, butter, egg, ham, onion, pepper):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Lentilsfits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, lettuce, butter, egg, ham, onion, pepper. 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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