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Split Pea Soup

A hearty soup made from soaked split peas, water, milk, onion, drippings, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Split Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Pick over the peas carefully and soak them in water for several hours, then drain.

  2. Add the cold water and simmer for 3 hours or until soft.

  3. Rub the peas through a coarse sieve.

Finish the soup

  1. Melt the drippings in a pot, then add the cornstarch, salt, pepper, and milk, stirring until smooth.

  2. Add the pea pulp to the mixture, let it boil for 1 to 2 minutes, and serve hot.

  3. Optionally, add a ham bone for additional flavor.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Milk + oniontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried split peas
Break down during long simmering to form the thick, body-giving pulp of the soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness that softens the soup's flavor.
Drippings
Provide fat that carries flavor and gives the soup a rich, savory character.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid when stirred and heated, giving the soup a smoother body.
Onion
Contributes aromatic, savory flavor to the soup base.

The step that matters

Stirring the milk mixture until smooth. Cornstarch clumps if it hits heat unevenly or is added without being dispersed, so stirring it smooth before the pea pulp goes in keeps the thickened base even.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Soybeanfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, onion, 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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