Name: Pea Broth
Ingredients: 2 pork hocks; water; peas

Why it works: Pork and peas are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,589 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pea Broth

Ingredients

2 pork hocks
water
peas

Directions

Make the broth

Place the pork hocks in a large pot.
Cover with water and bring to a boil.
Add the peas and simmer until the peas are soft.

Finish and serve

Remove the hocks, shred the meat, and return it to the pot.
Season to taste and serve hot.

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.

Pork + peastop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,589 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pork hocks: Release collagen and fat into the water, giving the broth body and savory flavor.
Peas: Break down as they simmer, thickening the broth and adding sweetness and body.

“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.