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Pease Pudding

A traditional English dish of split peas cooked with butter, eggs, pepper, and salt, served hot.

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 ↓

Pease Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Soak the split peas overnight in water, discarding any that are worm‑eaten or discolored.

  2. Tie the peas loosely in a clean cloth, leaving room for them to swell.

Cook and mash

  1. Boil the peas in cold rainwater for 2½ hours after the water has simmered.

  2. Once tender, rub the peas through a colander with a wooden spoon.

Mix and finish

  1. Add the butter, eggs, pepper, and salt, and mix well for a few minutes until combined.

  2. Tie the mixture tightly in a floured cloth and boil for another hour.

  3. Turn the pudding onto a dish and serve very 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. 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 main body of the pudding, thickening into a soft, mashable mass when cooked.
Eggs
Bind the mashed peas together and help the pudding set firm when boiled.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a smoother, more tender texture.

The step that matters

Leaving room in the cloth for the peas to swell. Split peas expand considerably as they absorb water. If they are tied too tightly, they can burst the cloth or cook unevenly, so the loose tie gives them space to swell safely.

Swap the peas

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

  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, egg, 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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