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Pea Patties

Pea patties are savory cakes made from cooked peas, butter, milk, eggs, and stale bread, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Pea Patties

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the peas

  1. Cook the peas in water for 30 minutes until tender, then drain.

  2. Add salt, pepper, butter, milk, and beaten eggs to the peas.

  3. Let the mixture boil for a few moments.

Make the bread cases

  1. To make bread cases, slice stale bread 2 inches thick and cut out circles with a biscuit cutter.

  2. Cut smaller circles almost to the bottom.

  3. Scoop out the inner part, leaving thin walls.

  4. Fry the bread cases in hot fat until light brown.

  5. Brush the bread cases with melted butter and brown in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

Serve

  1. Serve hot in freshly baked pattie shells or bread cases.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Peas + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Peas
Form the main body of the filling, providing bulk and a tender, soft texture when cooked.
Eggs
Bind the filling and help it set into a soft, cohesive mixture when heated.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the filling creamy rather than dry.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and flavor, and helps the bread cases brown.
Stale bread
Forms the edible case that holds the filling, and firms up when fried and baked.

The step that matters

Fry the bread cases in hot fat until light brown. Frying in hot fat seals and crisps the bread surface quickly, so it holds its shape and resists soaking up the filling. Stopping at light brown avoids burning before the case is sturdy.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Peasthe original
  2. Cocoafits about as well
  3. Lima beansfits about as well
  4. Walnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, milk, egg, bread. 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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