Name: Green Peas for Garnish
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon butter; 1 teaspoon flour; 1 cup cooked peas

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Green Peas for Garnish

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon flour
1 cup cooked peas

Directions

Melt the butter in a stew pan over medium heat.
Stir in the flour until well mixed.
Add the cooked peas and stir for 2-3 minutes until heated through.
Serve on a platter with roast lamb.

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.

Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,887 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Flour + peastop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,837 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter: Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the peas.
Flour: Thickens the butter into a light coating that helps the peas hold together.
Cooked peas: Form the main body of the dish and provide its sweet, fresh flavour.