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Black-Eyed Peas!

Happy Almost New Year, everyone! Did you know the "good luck" tradition of eating black-eyed peas dates all the way back to.....

By thepioneerwoman · From Open Recipes · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Black-eyed pea and jalapeno share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 36 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 12
Prep10 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Drain and rinse the black-eyed peas. Finely chop the jalapeno slices and set aside with the chopped onion.

  2. Put the peas, onion, jalapenos and a splash of water in a saucepan. Simmer over medium-low heat for about 25 minutes, stirring often, until the peas are very soft.

  3. Mash the peas coarsely with a potato masher, leaving some texture. Stir in the salsa and hot sauce.

  4. Remove from the heat and stir in the sour cream and half of the grated cheddar. Season with salt and black pepper to taste.

  5. Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle the remaining cheddar on top. Let it sit for 5 minutes so the cheese softens, then serve warm.

By thepioneerwoman. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Black-eyed pea + jalapenotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together36 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Black-eyed pea + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + cheddar cheesetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,669 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Black-eyed pea + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together190 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Cream + cheddar cheesetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,034 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the jalapeno

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (black-eyed pea, onion, cream, cheddar cheese, sauce, pepper):

  1. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  2. Celerybetter flavor fit
  3. Cuminabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Jalapenothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against black-eyed pea, onion, cream, cheddar cheese, sauce, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).