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Peas Pudding

A savory pudding made from soaked split peas, butter, salt, pepper, and eggs, boiled and served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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. Soak the split peas in cold soft water for 12 hours.

  2. Tie the soaked peas loosely in a cloth and place in a pan of cold water.

  3. Boil the peas for 3 hours.

  4. Turn the boiled peas out into a colander and rub through.

Make and cook the pudding

  1. Add butter, salt, pepper, and beaten eggs to the mixture and mix well.

  2. Return the mixture to the cloth.

  3. Place the cloth with the mixture in boiling water for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Turn out the mixture and serve hot with melted butter.

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

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

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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

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

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 set into a firm, spoonable body when cooked and rubbed.
Eggs
Bind the rubbed peas together so the pudding holds its shape when turned out.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, moist texture to the pudding.

The step that matters

Rubbing the boiled peas through the colander. Pushing the soft peas through removes skins and lumps, giving a smooth texture. Leftover lumps or skins make the final pudding coarse and uneven.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Walnutfits about as well
  2. Almondfits about as well
  3. Peasthe original
  4. Pecansfits about as well

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