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Peas Porridge

A thick porridge made from green peas, dried mint, butter, flour, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Peas Porridge

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the peas

  1. Put the peas, dried mint, and salt into the water.

  2. Boil until the peas are tender.

Thicken and finish

  1. Add black pepper and butter rolled in flour, stirring well.

  2. Boil for a few more minutes.

  3. Add the milk and boil for an additional 15 minutes.

  4. Remove the mint and serve 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.

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

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Green peas
Provide the main body and substance of the porridge as they soften during boiling.
Butter and flour
Form a roux-style mixture that thickens the liquid as it boils.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess, softening the porridge's texture.
Dried mint
Contributes aroma to the cooking liquid, removed before serving.

The step that matters

Adding the butter and flour mixture. Stirring well while adding the flour-coated butter prevents lumps, because flour clumps when dropped into hot liquid without being dispersed evenly. Even thickening depends on this.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, pepper, butter, walnut, flour, milk. 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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