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Peas Pudding

A cooked dish of split peas, water, salt, butter, and an egg yolk, boiled and blended into a smooth pudding.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Peas Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Dry the split peas over the fire.

  2. Tie the peas loosely in a cloth and soak them in warm water.

Cook and season

  1. Boil the peas for 2 hours until tender.

  2. Wash the peas with a little salt and butter.

  3. Add the egg yolk and mix until smooth.

  4. Tie the mixture in the cloth and boil for an additional hour.

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

Split peas
Form the bulk of the pudding, turning into a soft, thick mass when cooked and mashed.
Egg yolk
Binds the cooked peas together so the pudding holds its shape when set.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a smoother, softer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Tying the mixture in the cloth and boiling. The cloth must be secured so the pudding keeps its shape and does not leak or fall apart. Boiling then sets the egg yolk, firming the mixture into a cohesive pudding.

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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