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Green Peas

A simple boiled green peas dish flavored with butter, pepper, sea salt, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Green Peas

Why it works: Peas and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,331 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Green Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pea water

  1. Place the hulls in a pot and cover them with water.

  2. Boil thoroughly, then strain the liquid.

Cook and finish

  1. Add the peas to the strained water and boil until tender.

  2. Before serving, stir in butter, pepper, a pinch of coarse sea salt, and a small amount of 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. Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

  2. Peas + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Peas + sugartop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Pea hulls
Simmered in water to release their sweet, fresh pea flavour into the cooking liquid.
Peas
Become tender in the flavoured liquid, forming the body of the dish.
Butter
Adds fat and richness that gives the liquid a rounder, smoother mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds a small amount of sweetness that balances the salt and brings out the pea flavour.

The step that matters

Boil the peas until tender. Prolonged boiling breaks down the peas' cell walls, so they turn mushy and lose their bright green colour. Checking them early keeps their texture and colour intact.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, sugar. 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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