Why it works: Peas and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,887 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Peas Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the peas
Soak the split peas or dhal for at least 2 hours.
Place the soaked peas in a clean cloth, leaving room for them to swell.
Boil in cold water slowly until tender, about 2.5 hours.
Make the mixture
Rub the peas through a sieve into a deep dish.
Add eggs, butter, and salt.
Beat well for 10 minutes.
Boil and serve
Flour the cloth and place the mixture inside.
Tie tightly.
Boil for 1 hour.
Serve with boiled beef or pork.
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.
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Peas + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,887 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Peas + eggtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 or dhal
- Forms the body of the pudding as the peas soften and break down into a thick mass.
- Eggs
- Bind the mashed peas and help the pudding set firm when cooked.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, moister texture.
The step that matters
Leave room in the cloth for the peas to swell. Dried peas absorb water and expand as they cook. If they are packed too tightly into the cloth, they can be squeezed out of shape or the cloth can split during boiling.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter):
- Pecansfits better
- Almondfits better
- Filbertfits about as well
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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