Name: Peas with Bacon
Ingredients: 4 slices of bacon, cut into small pieces; 1 small onion, finely chopped; ½ peck of green peas (about 8 cups); Coarse sea salt, to taste; Black pepper, to taste; Warm water, enough to cover peas

Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Peas with Bacon

Ingredients

4 slices of bacon, cut into small pieces
1 small onion, finely chopped
½ peck of green peas (about 8 cups)
Coarse sea salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
Warm water, enough to cover peas

Directions

In a skillet, cook the bacon and onion together until lightly browned.
Add the green peas, salt, pepper, and enough warm water to cover the peas.
Cook until the peas are tender, then serve.

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.

Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peastop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,460 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bacon: Renders fat that carries flavour through the dish and adds savoury, browned notes.
Onion: Softens and sweetens as it browns, adding aromatic depth to the cooking liquid.
Green peas: Form the body of the dish and become tender as they simmer in the liquid.