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Pease Pudding

A savory pudding made from split peas, dripping, sugar, salt, pepper, served with mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pease Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Soak the split peas overnight in cold water.

  2. Tie the peas in a pudding cloth, leaving room for them to swell.

  3. Boil for 2 hours or until tender.

Mash and cook

  1. Mash the peas in a bowl and mix in the dripping, sugar, salt, and pepper.

  2. Tie the mixture tightly in a floured cloth.

  3. Place in boiling water and boil for 1 hour.

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. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Peas + mustardtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together425 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + mustardtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Peas + sugartop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Split peas
Form the bulk of the pudding, breaking down into a soft, thick mash when cooked until tender.
Dripping
Adds fat and richness, giving the mashed peas a smoother, more savoury texture.
Sugar
Adds a little sweetness that balances the savoury peas and salt.

The step that matters

Tying the cloth. The peas swell as they cook, so the cloth must leave room for expansion, yet the mashed mixture must be tied tightly so it holds its shape and cooks through without falling apart.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Black-eyed peafits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper, mustard. 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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