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Pea Souffle

A baked pea dish folded with beaten egg whites for a light, airy texture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Pea Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pea base

  1. Boil the peas until very soft and mash through a colander.

  2. Add melted butter and milk mixed with beaten egg yolks to the pea pulp.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, and mix thoroughly.

Fold and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the mixture.

  2. Pour into a buttered dish, cover, and bake for 20 minutes.

  3. To brown, remove the cover and return to the oven for a few minutes.

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

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

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

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

  3. Peas + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,309 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whipped whites trap air for a light, risen structure, while yolks enrich the custard and help it set.
Peas
Mashed cooked peas form the bulk of the body and provide the main flavour and moisture.
Milk
Adds liquid and softness, helping the mixture stay tender as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a smoother, more tender texture.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites hold the air that makes a soufflé rise. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air from collapsing before the dish reaches the oven.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Walnutfits about as well
  2. Cocoafits about as well
  3. Peasthe original
  4. Almondfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, egg, 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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