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Canned Peas

A simple side dish of canned peas simmered with sugar, mint, butter, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Canned Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the peas and soak them in cold water for 10 minutes.

Cook

  1. Bring salted water to a boil and add the peas; cook for 15 minutes.

  2. Add the lump of sugar and sprig of mint; cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Drain the peas, then add butter, pepper, and salt to taste before serving.

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. Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Mint + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,372 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

  4. Peas + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Peas
Form the main body of the dish and soften into a tender, spoonable texture when cooked.
White sugar
Adds a little sweetness to balance the savoury flavour of the peas.
Mint
Adds a fresh aroma as it steeps in the hot cooking water.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky coating once stirred into the drained peas.

The step that matters

Timing the boil. Peas cooked too long lose their structure as heat breaks down their cell walls and starches, so they turn soft and mushy. Following the 15-minute cook and the 5-minute addition closely keeps them intact.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, sugar, butter, pepper):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, sugar, butter, pepper. 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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