Name: Green Peas Boiled
Ingredients: 2 cups green peas; ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 1 tablespoon butter; ¼ teaspoon black pepper

Why it works: Peas and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,331 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Green Peas Boiled

Ingredients

2 cups green peas
½ teaspoon coarse sea salt
1 tablespoon butter
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Directions

Prepare

Shell and wash the peas.

Cook and serve

Boil the peas in slightly salted water for 25 minutes.
Drain well and transfer to a serving dish.
Add a lump of butter and sprinkle with pepper and salt.

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.

Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,331 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Peas + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,887 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 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, providing starch, sweetness and a tender texture when boiled.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, coating the peas and giving a smooth, savoury flavour.