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 ↓
Boiled Green Peas
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash and drain the peas.
Cook
Bring a large pot of salted water to a fast boil.
Add the peas and cook until tender.
Drain the peas well.
Serve
Serve hot in a tureen with melted butter.
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.
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Peas + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,887 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Green peas
- Form the dish's main body and provide its sweet, tender texture when cooked.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and moisture over the cooked peas.
The step that matters
Add the peas and cook until tender. Cooking in rapidly boiling salted water cooks the peas quickly and evenly. Overcooking turns them soft and mushy, while undercooking leaves them starchy and firm.
“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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