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Dried Pea Soup

A soup made from split peas or Lima beans, onions, salt pork, and seasoned with pepper, salt, celery seed, and thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Dried Pea Soup

Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Dried Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine the split peas or Lima beans with the soft water, chopped onions, pepper, and salt in a large pot.

  2. Boil the mixture for 2 hours.

  3. Mash the mixture well and pass it through a sieve.

  4. Return the liquid to the pot.

Finish and serve

  1. Thicken the liquid with butter and flour.

  2. Add slices of salt pork and pounded celery seed to the pot and boil until the pork is cooked.

  3. Add fried bread cubes to the tureen and pour the soup into the tureen.

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.

  1. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Peas + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Split peas or lima beans
Break down during long boiling to form the body of the soup.
Flour
Thickens the strained liquid so the soup becomes creamy and substantial.
Butter
Adds richness and, with flour, helps form a smooth thickened base.
Salt pork
Adds savory fat and flavor that seasons the soup as it simmers.
Onions
Contribute savory aroma and sweetness as they cook down into the liquid.

The step that matters

Passing the mashed mixture through a sieve. Pushing the cooked peas through a sieve separates the smooth pulp from skins and fibres. Skipping or rushing this leaves a grainy texture, and the thickening that follows depends on a smooth liquid.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, pepper, butter, flour, pork, celery, bread):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, butter, flour, pork, celery, bread. 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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