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Salad

Black-eyed Pea and Ham Salad

A salad of cooked dried black-eyed peas tossed with chopped ham, vegetables, jalapeno, vinegar, and honey.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Black-eyed pea and onion work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 190 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

Time25 to 30 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the peas

  1. In a saucepan combine peas with salt and water to cover by 2 inches and simmer.

  2. Cook for 25 to 30 minutes.

  3. Drain peas.

Assemble the salad

  1. In a bowl toss peas with vinegar, vegetables, jalapeno, and 1 tablespoon oil.

  2. In a small skillet heat remaining 1/2 tablespoon oil over moderately high heat until hot but.

  3. Add honey and saute, stirring, 1 minute.

  4. Add ham to salad and toss well.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Black-eyed pea + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together190 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Black-eyed pea + jalapenotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together36 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Vinegar + olivetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together10,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Black-eyed peas
Provides the main body and bulk, holding their shape after simmering and draining.
Cooked ham steak
Adds savory, salty flavor and a chewy, meaty texture.
Balsamic vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the peas and balances the sweetness of the honey.
Honey
Adds sweetness and gentle browning when sauteed, rounding out the acidity.
Olive oil
Adds fat that carries flavor and gives the salad a smooth mouthfeel.
Red bell pepper
Adds crisp texture and a mild, sweet flavor.

The step that matters

Sauteing the honey. Honey contains sugars that can scorch quickly in a very hot pan. Heating the skillet only until the oil is hot, then stirring the honey in for about a minute, lets it warm and lightly caramelize without burning and turning bitter.

Flavor stand-ins for the jalapeno

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (black-eyed pea, vinegar, pepper, celery, onion, olive, ham):

  1. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  2. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  3. Thymebetter flavor fit
  4. Jalapenothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against black-eyed pea, vinegar, pepper, celery, onion, olive, ham. 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).

“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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