Name: A LA Maria
Ingredients: 1 ½ cups good double cream; 2 small pieces of butter; ½ liter cooked peas; 1 large Spanish onion; clarified butter; broth; croutons

Why it works: Cream and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 41,494 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the purée as previously detailed.
Clarify it for only half an hour.
When ready to serve, stop boiling by removing it from the heat.
Mix in the cream and butter.
Pour into a soup tureen with small croutons.
Add the cooked peas and 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Cream + buttertop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together41,494 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together42,827 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Peas + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together5,460 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + peastop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together4,878 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Cream + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together10,826 recipes

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

Cream and onion share little aroma chemistry, yet 10,826 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter, onion):

Peanutbetter flavor fit
Almondbetter flavor fit
Filbertbetter flavor fit
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).