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Pea Salad

A salad of peas, hard‑boiled eggs, onion, cheese, and dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,460 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pea Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cook the peas in as little boiling water as possible.

  2. Drain the peas.

Assemble and serve

  1. Once cold, add the finely chopped yolks of the eggs, minced onion, cheese, and enough salad dressing to moisten.

  2. Sprinkle the finely chopped egg whites over the top.

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

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

  2. Onion + cheesetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,849 recipes

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

  3. Peas + cheesetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together313 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Egg + cheesetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Peas
Form the bulk of the salad and provide its main texture and fresh flavor.
Hard boiled eggs
Add richness and body through the creamy yolks, with chopped whites for garnish.
Salad dressing
Adds moisture and tang, binding the peas and other ingredients together.
Grated cheese
Contributes savory, salty flavor and a little richness to the salad.

The step that matters

Cook the peas in as little boiling water as possible. Using minimal water and cooking briefly keeps the peas bright green and tender-firm, since overcooking breaks down cell walls and leaches flavor and color into the water.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, egg, cheese. 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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