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Dried Peas and Oatmeal

A hearty stew of dried peas, bacon, onions, and oatmeal simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Dried Peas and Oatmeal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and cut the meat into half-inch pieces.

  2. In a dry pot over medium heat, fry the meat with the sliced onions until browned, stirring constantly to prevent burning.

Cook the stew

  1. Add pepper, salt, and sugar, then pour in the cold water and add the soaked and drained peas.

  2. Cover and boil gently until the peas are soft, stirring frequently.

  3. Gradually stir in the oatmeal and simmer for 20 minutes.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

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

  4. Peas + porktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,589 recipes

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

  5. 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

Dried peas
Form the bulk of the stew and, once softened, thicken it into a hearty body.
Bacon or fat salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor, and its browning builds depth in the pot.
Onions
Sweeten and deepen the base as they brown with the meat.
Oatmeal mush
Thickens the broth further and adds a creamy, starchy texture.

The step that matters

Browning the meat and onions. Stirring constantly over medium heat keeps the sugars and fats in the meat and onions from scorching, which would leave bitter flavors in the stew.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, pork, sugar, pepper):

  1. Sesamefits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Black-eyed peafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pork, sugar, pepper. 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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