Why it works: Peas and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,887 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Green Peas
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Shell the peas.
Cook
Cook in boiling water until half covered for about 20 minutes.
Add salt when almost cooked.
Let the water cook almost away.
Finish and serve
Add butter or cream and serve hot.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Peas + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,887 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Green peas
- Form the main body of the dish, cooking to a tender texture in boiling water.
- Butter or cream
- Adds fat and richness, giving the cooked peas a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Let the water cook almost away. Leaving some water in the pan keeps the peas moist, while cooking it nearly off concentrates flavour and lets the butter or cream coat the peas rather than pool in liquid.
“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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