Skip to main content
Main

Canned Peas

A simple dish of canned peas heated with water, milk, butter, pepper, salt, and optional sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Canned Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the peas in a colander and rinse with cold water.

  2. Place peas in a basin with 2-3 tablespoons of water to heat them without scorching.

Finish and serve

  1. Once heated, add 1 cup of rich milk, butter, pepper, and salt.

  2. Bring to a boil and serve.

  3. For added flavor, stir in 1 teaspoon of sugar while boiling.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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)
Provide the main body and starchy, tender texture of the dish.
Rich milk
Adds creaminess and a soft, rich mouthfeel to the peas.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, rounded flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the savoriness of the peas and salt.

The step that matters

Heating without scorching. Milk contains sugars and proteins that can scorch and stick to the bottom of the basin. Adding the water first and heating gently spreads the heat and helps prevent burning. Stirring while the milk heats keeps it from catching.

“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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes