Name: Pea Fritters
Ingredients: 1 pint green peas; 2 eggs, whipped; 1 cup milk; ¼ teaspoon baking soda; ½ teaspoon cream of tartar; ½ cup flour

Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Pea Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

Cook the peas until tender, then mash them while hot with a wooden spoon.
Set the mashed peas aside until morning.

Make and cook the batter

Make a batter by mixing the whipped eggs, milk, baking soda, cream of tartar, and flour.
Stir in the pea mixture and beat well.
Cook on a griddle like ordinary pancakes.

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.

Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Peas + milktop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,309 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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: Provide the main bulk and flavour of the fritters.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as they set on the griddle.
Milk: Adds moisture so the batter can spread and cook through.
Baking soda: Reacts with the cream of tartar to lift the batter and help it rise.
Cream of tartar: Acidifies the batter so it reacts with baking soda to create lift.
Flour: Provides starch that sets during cooking to give the fritters body.