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Duchess Peas

A dish of seasoned peas stuffed into oblong potato and cheese mixture baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Duchess Peas

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Mash the boiled potatoes in a bowl.

  2. Add salt and pepper, melted butter, egg yolks, grated cheese, and cream; mix well.

Shape and bake

  1. Mold the mixture into oblong shapes.

  2. Brush the tops with beaten egg.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Fill the cavities with hot seasoned French peas.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Potato + peastop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,016 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled potatoes
Provide the starchy base that holds the shape of the duchess mixture.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and enrich it, helping it hold its shape when baked.
Melted butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the mixture soft and smooth.
Grated mild cheese
Adds savoury flavour and helps the surface brown as it bakes.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness, making the mixture smoother and easier to shape.

The step that matters

Bake until golden brown. The potato mixture is already cooked, so baking is mainly for browning the surface. Watch the colour closely, because the egg-brushed tops can darken quickly and the egg proteins set as they heat.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, pepper, butter, egg, cheese, cream):

  1. Walnutfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Almondfits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pepper, butter, egg, cheese, cream. 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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