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Boiled Peas

A simple boiled pea dish flavored with salt, sugar, mint, butter, and additional seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mint and peas 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 ↓

Boiled Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the peas

  1. Bring 1 quart of water to a boil in a pot.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and ½ ounce of green mint.

  3. Pour in 1 pint of shelled peas and continue boiling until done.

  4. Drain the peas and transfer them to a serving dish.

Finish and serve

  1. Add 1 ounce of butter, sprinkle with salt and finely‑pounded sugar, and mix until the butter melts and coats the peas.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Mint + peastop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Mint + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,559 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Sugar + peastop 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

Shelled peas
Form the dish itself, cooking until tender and providing its main body and sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, coating the peas and giving them a smooth, glossy finish.
Sugar
Boosts the natural sweetness of the peas, balancing any grassy or bitter notes.
Fresh green mint
Contributes a cool, aromatic flavour that infuses the cooking water.

The step that matters

Drain the peas and serve promptly. Peas keep cooking from residual heat and lose their bright green colour and texture if left sitting. Draining well and adding the butter while they are hot lets it melt and coat them evenly.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Mintthe original
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

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