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Peas-por Ridge

A warm porridge made from green peas, milk, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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-por Ridge

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the peas

  1. Combine green peas, water, dried mint, and salt in a pot.

  2. Bring to a boil until peas are tender.

  3. Add black pepper and the butter rolled in flour. Stir well and boil for a few more minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour in the milk and let it boil for 15 minutes.

  2. Remove the mint before serving.

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 + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Mint + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,372 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Green peas
Form the body of the porridge and give it its main flavour and thickness as they soften.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and smoothing the texture.
Flour
Thickens the porridge as it cooks, giving it a body that holds together.
Milk
Adds creaminess and extra body, softening the flavour of the peas.

The step that matters

Add the butter rolled in flour. Flour coated on butter disperses into the hot liquid without clumping only when stirred well; if it is not stirred in thoroughly, it forms lumps and the porridge thickens unevenly.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, pepper, walnut, butter, flour, milk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, pepper, walnut, butter, flour, milk. 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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