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Split-peas Pudding

A pudding made from soaked and boiled split peas, blended with butter and salt, optionally enriched with eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,887 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Split-peas Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Soak the yellow split peas in water overnight.

  2. Drain the peas and place them in a loose cloth to allow swelling.

Cook and shape

  1. Boil the peas for 4 hours or until tender.

  2. Rub the cooked peas through a colander until smooth.

  3. Mix in butter and salt until well combined.

  4. For a richer pudding, add 2 beaten eggs with the butter.

  5. Place the mixture back in the cloth, tie tightly, and boil for 1 hour.

Serve

  1. Serve with melted butter poured over the pudding.

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

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. 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

Yellow split peas
Form the main body of the pudding, breaking down into a smooth, thick mass when cooked and rubbed.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the pudding a softer, smoother mouthfeel.
Eggs
Bind the purée and help it set firm when boiled, adding structure and richness.

The step that matters

Tying the cloth tightly before the final boil. A loose cloth lets the pudding spread and lose its shape, and the cloth must be snug so the mixture holds together while it cooks.

Swap the peas

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg. 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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