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Pease-pudding

A savory pudding made from marrowy peas, salt, pepper, egg yolks, and butter, boiled and pulped.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Pease-pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Soak the peas for the necessary time.

  2. Boil the peas tied loosely in a cloth until they can be pulped through a colander.

Season and boil

  1. Add salt, pepper, egg yolks, and butter to the peas.

  2. Tie the cloth firmly and boil for another 30 minutes, optionally with pork.

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. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Peas + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Peas
Form the main body of the pudding, with starch that thickens into a soft, mashable mass.
Egg yolks
Bind the pulped peas and help the pudding set into a firm, sliceable texture when heated.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, silkier mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Tie the cloth firmly before the final boil. Egg yolks set when heated, so the long boil firms the mixture. A firmly tied cloth keeps water from seeping in and thinning the pudding, so it holds together rather than turning watery or loose.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Walnutfits about as well
  2. Almondfits about as well
  3. Peasthe original
  4. Pecansfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, egg, butter. 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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