Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Green Peas
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the peas
Boil water in a pot.
Add fresh peas and cook uncovered until they mash easily with a fork.
Salt the peas when they are nearly done.
Let the water boil away almost completely.
Finish and serve
Season with butter, cream, and a little sugar if desired, or serve with a cream sauce.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Peas + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,887 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Peas + creamtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,400 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh peas
- Provide the main body of the dish, softening into a mash as they cook.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished peas.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture when stirred in.
The step that matters
Let the water boil away almost completely. Leftover cooking water dilutes the peas and keeps them loose. Reducing it concentrates the flavour and lets the peas thicken into a spoonable mash before seasoning with butter and cream.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, sugar):
- Almondfits better
- Filbertfits better
- Pistachiofits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, sugar. 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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