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Green Pea Casserole

"Excellent, sophisticated dish. Great for luncheons. This dish is always a smash hit!"

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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 16,001 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

The recipe

8 servings
Prep15 min
Cook40 min

Ingredients

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

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.

  2. Drain the baby peas, diced pimento and sliced water chestnuts well, then spread the peas, pimento and water chestnuts evenly in the dish.

  3. In a bowl, stir together the condensed cream of celery soup and chopped onion until blended, then spoon the mixture over the vegetables and spread it smoothly.

  4. Scatter the shredded Cheddar cheese evenly over the soup mixture.

  5. In another bowl, toss the crushed buttery round crackers with the melted margarine until the crumbs are evenly moistened.

  6. Sprinkle the buttered cracker crumbs over the cheese to cover the top.

  7. Bake uncovered for 35 to 40 minutes, until the topping is golden brown and the casserole is bubbling around the edges.

  8. Let the casserole rest for 5 minutes before serving.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

  1. Pepper + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together16,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Celery + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together18,506 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Water chestnut + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together319 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + cheddar cheesetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,669 recipes

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

  5. Water chestnut + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together118 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the water chestnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, pepper, cream, celery, onion, cheddar cheese):

  1. Lemonbetter flavor fit
  2. Mangobetter flavor fit
  3. Limeabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Water chestnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, pepper, cream, celery, onion, cheddar cheese. 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).