Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Cream of Pea Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Press the peas through a colander.
Bring the milk to a boil and add the pea pulp.
Rub the butter and flour together, then add to the boiling soup.
Stir constantly until the soup thickens.
Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately.
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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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,331 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Peas + milktop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,309 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Peas + flourtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,837 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, pepper):
- Milletfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Chickpeafits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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