Why it works: Peas and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Peas, to Cook
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a stewpan.
Add the peas, mint, sugar, and salt.
Simmer for 45 minutes, shaking the pan frequently.
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.
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Peas + minttop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,137 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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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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Butter + minttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,559 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Peas + sugartop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,928 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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 dish and soften into a tender texture during the long simmer.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the peas a smooth, glossy coating.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness, which balances the vegetable flavour and can offset starchiness in older peas.
The step that matters
Simmer for 45 minutes, shaking the pan frequently. A long, gentle simmer softens the peas fully. Shaking the pan keeps them moving so they cook evenly and do not stick or scorch on the base of the stewpan.
Swap the mint
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, butter, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Mintthe original
- Gingerfits about as well
- Tarragonfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against peas, butter, 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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