Name: Peas Pudding
Ingredients: 1 quart split peas (or dhall); 2 eggs; 1 ounce butter; coarse sea salt to taste

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

1 quart split peas (or dhall)
2 eggs
1 ounce butter
coarse sea salt to taste

Directions

Prepare the peas

Soak the split peas for at least 2 hours.
Place the soaked peas in a clean cloth, leaving room for them to swell.

Cook and sieve

Boil the peas in cold water slowly until tender, about 2.5 hours.
Rub the cooked peas through a sieve into a deep dish.

Finish the pudding

Add the eggs, butter, and salt to the peas.
Beat the mixture well for about 10 minutes.

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.

Peas + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,887 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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 and set into a thick, smooth mass when cooked and sieved.
Eggs: Bind the mashed peas so the pudding holds its shape and sets when cooked.
Butter: Adds richness and a silky texture to the pea mixture.

The step that matters

Boil the peas slowly in cold water until tender. Starting in cold water and simmering gently lets the peas soften evenly and absorb water without bursting or scorching, which gives a smooth sieved purée. Boiling too hard can break the skins unevenly and leave a grainy texture.