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Peas Pudding

A boiled split pea dish mixed with eggs, pepper, salt, and flour, then cooked again in a cloth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,331 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Peas Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Tie the split peas loosely in a clean cloth.

  2. Boil slowly for 2.5 hours until tender.

  3. Rub the peas through a sieve into a deep dish.

Make the pudding

  1. Add the beaten eggs, pepper, and salt.

  2. Mix well for 10 minutes.

Cook

  1. Flour the cloth and place the mixture in it.

  2. Tie it tightly.

  3. Boil for another 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. Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Peas + flourtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,837 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Peas + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Split peas
Form the bulk of the pudding and thicken into a smooth, starchy pulp as they cook.
Eggs
Bind the pea pulp and help it set firmly when heated.
Flour
Coats the cloth so the pudding releases cleanly and keeps its shape.

The step that matters

Tying the cloth tightly. A snug wrap keeps the mixture compact so it cooks evenly and holds its shape. A loose wrap lets water seep in, which can leave the pudding soggy and weakly set.

Swap the peas

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, flour. 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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