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Green Peas with Egg

A baked green pea custard with nut cream and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Green Peas with Egg

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the peas

  1. Cook the peas until tender.

  2. Rub the peas through a colander.

Make the mixture

  1. Mix in the minced celery or parsley and salt to taste.

  2. Add the nut cream and beaten egg to the peas.

Bake

  1. Transfer the mixture to a pudding dish.

  2. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven or in a pan of water until the egg is set.

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 + celerytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Celery + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,863 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  3. Peas + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Peas + creamtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Green peas
Form the main body and bulk of the pudding once cooked and puréed.
Beaten egg
Sets when heated, giving the pudding its firm, sliceable structure.
Thick nut cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a smooth, creamy texture.

The step that matters

Bake until the egg is set. Egg proteins coagulate as they heat, turning the mixture from liquid to a firm custard. Underbaking leaves it loose, while overbaking can make it curdle or weep. A water bath moderates the heat and helps the custard set gently.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, cream, egg):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Mintfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, cream, 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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