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Pueee of Green Peas

A purée of green peas thickened with a butter roux and finished with cream, poured over fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Pueee of Green Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Shell the peas and set them aside in a cold place.

  2. Boil the pods in enough salted water to cover them for 20 minutes.

  3. Strain the pods and return the water to the pot with the peas and mint.

  4. Boil until the peas are soft enough to rub through a colander.

Make the purée

  1. Press the peas through the colander and stir in 1 cup of the cooking water.

  2. Season with pepper and salt, then return to the colander.

  3. As the mixture simmers, stir in a roux made from 1 tablespoon of flour cooked in 2 tablespoons of butter for 3 minutes.

  4. Cook for 1 minute, then remove from heat and add 3 tablespoons of heated cream with a tiny bit of soda.

Serve

  1. Pour the mixture over squares of fried bread on a hot platter.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + minttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,372 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Peas + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

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 purée, giving it its vegetable flavour and thick texture once pressed.
Flour
Forms a roux with the butter that thickens the purée.
Butter
Cooks with the flour to make the roux and adds richness to the purée.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, smoothing the texture of the purée.
Soda
Added in a tiny amount with the cream; it slightly raises the pH of the purée.

The step that matters

Adding the cream and soda off the heat. Cream can curdle or separate if it boils or is added to very hot mixture. Removing the pan from heat before adding warmed cream keeps the purée smooth and well emulsified.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, pepper, flour, butter, cream, bread):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, pepper, flour, butter, cream, bread. 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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