Name: Pea Powder
Ingredients: ½ ounce dried mint; ½ ounce dried sage; 1 teaspoon celery seed; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pea Powder

Ingredients

½ ounce dried mint
½ ounce dried sage
1 teaspoon celery seed
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions

Pound the dried mint, sage, celery seed, and cayenne pepper together in a marble mortar.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.
Use this powder to add flavor to pea soup or water gruel.

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.

Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,388 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Sage + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together723 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Mint + sagetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together138 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Mint + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,372 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried mint: Provides a bright, aromatic herbal flavor that carries the powder.
Dried sage: Adds a savory, earthy aroma that gives the powder its character.
Celery seed: Contributes a warm, slightly bitter savory aroma.
Cayenne pepper: Adds gentle heat that lifts and sharpens the other flavors.