Why it works: Peas and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,887 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Pease Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Soak the split peas overnight.
Place the soaked peas in an earthen dish and cover with hot water.
Add the butter and salt.
Cook
Cook for 5 hours in a 300°F (150°C) oven.
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.
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Peas + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,887 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Split peas
- Starch and fibre soften and thicken during the long cook into a smooth, thick purée.
- Hot water
- Hydrates the dried peas so they soften evenly during the long, slow cook.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a silkier mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Soaking the split peas overnight. Dried split peas must absorb water before cooking. Full hydration lets them soften evenly during the long, slow bake, so the pudding turns smooth rather than grainy or partly firm.
“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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