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With Buttered Eggs

Stewed peas topped with a quick buttered egg mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,885 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

With Buttered Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the peas

  1. Stew the peas in a pot until tender.

  2. Add the butter, sugar, salt, and chopped parsley to the peas.

Add the eggs and serve

  1. In a bowl, beat the yolks and whites of the eggs together.

  2. Pour the egg mixture over the peas and stir quickly.

  3. Serve immediately before the egg hardens.

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 + parsleytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Young green peas
Form the main body of the dish and provide their own mild sweetness.
Eggs
Thicken into a soft, creamy coating when stirred into the hot peas, then set if overheated.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds gentle sweetness that balances the salt and the savoury peas.
Chopped parsley
Adds fresh, green aroma and a light herbal flavour.

The step that matters

Stir the egg into the peas and serve at once. The hot peas cook the beaten egg gently as it is stirred in. Egg proteins tighten and form curds if they stay hot too long, so the mixture turns firm and grainy. Quick stirring and immediate serving keep it soft and smooth.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

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