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Pea Cheese

A baked or steamed potato and pea mixture, sliced, coated in cracker crumbs, and browned or fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,107 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Pea Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the base

  1. Bake or steam the potatoes until tender.

  2. Grate or mash the potatoes finely.

  3. Add salt, pepper, butter or hot cream, and pea puree. Mix well.

  4. Pour the mixture into a square dish and let it cool.

Coat and cook

  1. Once cold, slice the mixture and dip each slice into cracker crumbs.

  2. Brown the slices in the oven at 400°F (200°C) or fry them until golden.

Serve

  1. Serve with carrots, mushrooms, and a green salad. Add chestnuts or walnuts if desired.

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.

  1. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Carrot + chestnuttop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together186 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Mushroom + chestnuttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together474 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

Potatoes
Form the starchy body that is grated or mashed and holds the slices together.
Butter or hot cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the mixture a smoother, softer texture.
Pea puree
Supplies the main flavour and colour, and moisture that binds the mixture.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp outer coating that browns when baked or fried.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool fully before slicing. Starch in the potatoes sets as it cools, so the mixture firms up enough to hold a clean slice. Slicing it warm would likely crumble or tear.

Swap the chestnut

The recipe marks chestnut as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, pepper, butter, carrot, mushroom):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits about as well
  3. Peasfits about as well
  4. Chestnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pepper, butter, carrot, mushroom. 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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