Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Sugar Peas
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Gather sugar pea pods while the seeds are still very small.
String the pods like beans and cut them into two or three lengths.
Cook and serve
Cover the pods with boiling water and boil gently until tender, about 25 to 30 minutes.
Pour off some of the water to use for soup.
Season with salt and butter, then serve immediately.
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.
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar pea pods
- Provide the main vegetable, becoming tender and sweet as they cook through.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, coating the pods for a smoother mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Boil gently until tender. Boiling too hard can break up the pods and leave them unevenly cooked. A gentle simmer softens the fibrous pods evenly while keeping their shape and color.
“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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