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Puree of Green Peas

A smooth puree of boiled green peas, flavored with mint, pepper, and butter, served over fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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

Prepare the stock

  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.

  4. Return the water to the fire with the peas and mint.

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

Make the puree

  1. Press the peas through the colander.

  2. Stir in 1 cup of the reserved cooking water.

  3. Season with pepper and salt.

  4. Return to the colander.

  5. In a separate pan, cook 1 tablespoon of flour in 2 tablespoons of butter for 3 minutes.

  6. Stir the roux into the pea mixture.

  7. Cook for 1 minute.

  8. Remove from heat.

  9. Add 3 tablespoons of heated cream mixed with a tiny bit of baking soda.

Serve

  1. Serve 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. Mint + peppertop 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 puree, giving it its bulk and green flavour.
Flour
Thickens the puree when cooked in butter as a roux.
Butter
Cooks with the flour to form a roux and adds richness.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the finished puree.

The step that matters

Adding the roux to the pea mixture. Flour must cook in butter first so it loses its raw taste and thickens evenly. Stirring the roux in and cooking it briefly lets it dissolve smoothly and thicken the puree without lumps.

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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