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To Boil Green Peas

A simple boiled green peas dish seasoned with salt, mint, butter, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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To Boil Green Peas

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 ↓

To Boil Green Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the peas.

  2. Bring a pot of water to a boil.

Cook and serve

  1. Add the peas, salt, and mint to the boiling water.

  2. Boil until tender.

  3. Serve hot with butter, pepper, and additional salt.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Green peas
Form the main body of the dish and supply most of its sweet, tender texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel when served over the hot peas.
Fresh mint
Adds a cool, fresh aroma that lightly flavours the cooking water and peas.

The step that matters

Boil until tender. Peas keep cooking after they are taken off the heat, and extended boiling breaks down their cell walls, so they turn soft and mushy. Testing them early keeps their bright colour and firm bite.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Mintthe original

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