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Peas and Carrots

A simple side dish of boiled carrots and peas seasoned with butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Peas and Carrots

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

  1. Wash, scrape, and cut the young carrots into cubes.

  2. Cook in boiling salted water until soft.

Season

  1. Drain the carrots, then add the peas and season with butter, salt, and pepper.

Serve in carrot cups

  1. Cut thick slices of carrot into cups by scooping out the inside before cooking.

  2. Serve the peas in the cups.

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. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + peastop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,994 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Pepper + peastop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

  4. Butter + peastop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,887 recipes

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

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 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

Carrots
Provide the main body, mild sweetness, and a firm-soft texture when cooked.
Green peas
Add sweetness, bright color, and a tender texture to the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, coating the vegetables and carrying flavor.

The step that matters

Drain the carrots well before adding the peas and butter. Excess cooking water dilutes the butter and pepper, so the seasoning coats the vegetables poorly and the dish tastes watery and flat.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Walnutfits about as well
  3. Chickpeafits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, butter, pepper. 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.

More peas and carrots recipes

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