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Pease Pudding

A boiled split pea dish mixed with butter, salt, and egg, served with corned beef.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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

Cook the peas

  1. Tie the split peas loosely in a cloth and boil in water for 2 hours until soft.

  2. Remove from water and rub the peas smooth with salt, butter, and the beaten egg.

  3. Tie the mixture back in the cloth and boil for another hour.

Serve

  1. Serve with corned beef.

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

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Peas + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Dry split peas
Form the bulk of the pudding, softening into a thick, starchy mass when boiled.
Beaten egg
Binds the smoothed peas so the pudding holds its shape when boiled again.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer, richer texture and smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Rubbing the peas smooth. Peas must be fully softened before rubbing, or the mixture stays grainy and will not bind evenly with the egg. Working it smooth while warm helps the starch form an even, cohesive texture when boiled again.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Pecansfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Filbertfits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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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