Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Gseen Peas
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the peas
Boil 1 pint of water with 1 teaspoon of salt.
If the peas are not very sweet, add 1 teaspoon of sugar.
Add the peas and boil for 15 minutes if they are young.
Finish and serve
Drain the peas and add butter, pepper, and coarse sea salt to taste.
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.
-
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,401 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Peas (in the method)
- The main ingredient, providing the body and the sweet, fresh vegetable flavour of the dish.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to offset peas that taste starchy or not very sweet.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, coating the peas and carrying their flavour.
The step that matters
Add the peas and boil for 15 minutes if they are young.. Peas are cooked in a short window. Boiling too long breaks down their cell walls, so they turn soft, mushy and dull green. Younger peas need the full time, while older or sweeter peas may need less, so check them as they cook.
“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 green peas recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.