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A Peas Pudding

A pea pudding is a thick, savory pudding made from split peas, butter, salt, pepper, and optional eggs.

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 ↓

A Peas Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Remove any worm-eaten peas.

  2. Wash the good peas well.

  3. Soak the peas in plenty of soft water overnight.

  4. Tie the peas in a thick pudding cloth, leaving room for them to swell.

Boil

  1. Cover with cold soft water.

  2. Boil gently for 2 to 2.5 hours.

  3. If not tender, discard as they are of bad quality.

  4. Lift the peas into a colander.

  5. Untie the cloth.

  6. Crush the peas to a paste with a wooden spoon.

  7. Stir in the butter, salt, and pepper.

  8. Tie the mixture tightly in the cloth.

  9. Boil for an additional 30 minutes.

  10. Turn the pudding gently onto a dish.

  11. 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. 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, breaking down into a thick paste when cooked and crushed.
Butter
Adds richness and a smoother, softer texture to the crushed peas.

The step that matters

Boil gently for 2 to 2.5 hours. Split peas need a long, gentle simmer to soften fully. A hard boil can break the cloth or toughen the skins unevenly, and peas that stay firm will not crush into a smooth paste.

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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