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Peas Pudding

A savory pudding made from split peas, butter, pepper, and sea salt, cooked and mashed in a cloth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Peas Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Remove impurities from the split peas.

  2. Tie the peas loosely in a cloth.

Cook and shape the pudding

  1. Boil the peas in water until soft, about 2 to 3 hours.

  2. Remove the pudding from the water and place it in a basin.

  3. Open the cloth and mash the peas well.

  4. Mix in the butter, pepper, and salt.

  5. Tie the cloth tightly and return it to the pot.

  6. Boil for about 30 minutes.

  7. Turn the pudding out of the cloth into a serving dish.

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. Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

  2. Peas + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. 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

Split peas
Form the main body of the pudding once cooked and mashed into a soft, thick mass.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the mashed peas a smoother, silkier mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Tying the cloth tightly before the final boil. A loose cloth lets water soak into the mashed peas during the last boil, making the pudding waterlogged and loose instead of firm enough to turn out whole.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper):

  1. Walnutfits better
  2. Black-eyed peafits better
  3. Almondfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper. 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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