Name: Ao Leg of Pork with Peas Pudding
Ingredients: 1 leg of pork; 1 pint split peas; a few peppercorns; 1 tablespoon butter; 2 whole eggs; 1 egg yolk; 1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt; a pinch of grated nutmeg

Why it works: Pork and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,933 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Ao Leg of Pork with Peas Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding mixture

Stew the split peas with peppercorns, salt, and butter until well done.
Rub the peas through a sieve with a wooden spoon.
Stir in the whole eggs and egg yolk one at a time.
Add more butter, salt, and nutmeg, mixing well.

Boil and serve

Tie the mixture in a cloth to form a long pudding.
Boil the pudding for 1.5 hours.
Place the leg of pork on a dish and turn out the pudding.
Slice the pudding and garnish around the pork before serving hot.

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.

Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,933 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Pork + peastop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,589 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together24,377 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Peas + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,887 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 once cooked and pressed into a smooth purée.
Eggs: Bind the purée so the pudding holds its shape when boiled and sliced.
Butter: Adds richness and a smoother, softer texture to the pudding.

The step that matters

Stir in the whole eggs and egg yolk one at a time. Beaten eggs added to a warm purée must be mixed in gradually so they blend evenly; adding them all at once can leave streaks. Egg proteins set when heated, so the pudding's firmness depends on even incorporation before boiling.