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Puree of Green Peas

A creamy soup made from green peas, ham, onion, and beef broth, finished with cream, egg yolks, butter, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Puree of Green Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Strain the peas.

  2. Place the strained peas in a saucepan with the ham and onion.

  3. Cover the mixture with beef broth.

  4. Boil for 1 hour.

  5. Remove the ham and onion.

  6. Press the soup through a fine sieve.

Finish the soup

  1. Return the soup to the heat.

  2. Add hot cream.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Beat the egg yolks with cream.

  5. Stir the beaten yolks into the soup briskly.

  6. Add the butter.

  7. Stir until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth.

Serve

  1. Garnish with chopped parsley.

  2. Serve.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Green peas
Form the main body and flavour of the puree once cooked and pressed smooth.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the soup as they gently set with heat, adding body and smoothness.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel as it melts into the smooth puree.
Cream
Adds richness and body, giving a softer, smoother texture to the soup.
Beef broth
Provides the liquid and savoury depth in which the peas cook and soften.

The step that matters

Stir the beaten yolks into the soup briskly. Egg yolks thicken when heated, but if the hot soup meets them too slowly or unevenly they can scramble into small lumps. Moving the soup while adding them keeps the yolks dispersed and the texture smooth.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, ham, onion, beef, cream, pepper, egg):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, ham, onion, beef, cream, pepper, egg. 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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