Name: Green Peas
Ingredients: 2 cups fresh green peas; 1 teaspoon sugar; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; 2 tablespoons butter; ½ cup milk or cream

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Green Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Shell and wash the green peas.

Cook and serve

Boil the peas in water for 20 minutes, adding sugar if they are not very young and tender.
Drain the peas and season with salt, pepper, butter, and heated milk or cream.
Serve immediately.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,309 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Peas + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,887 recipes

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

Green peas: Form the main body of the dish and provide its fresh, sweet vegetable flavor.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the drained peas.
Milk or cream: Adds moisture and creaminess, softening the peas into a rich, coating texture.
Sugar: Enhances the natural sweetness of older peas that have less sugar.