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Green Pea Sovup

A creamy soup made from peas, stock, onion, flour, butter, cream, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Green Pea Sovup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine peas, stock, and onion in a soup kettle.

  2. Cook slowly for about 20 minutes.

  3. Remove the onion and mash the peas through a sieve.

  4. Return the mashed peas to the fire and thicken with flour rubbed smooth in butter.

  5. Let the soup boil for 2–3 minutes.

  6. Add salt, pepper, cream, and milk.

  7. Boil again, then pour into a tureen and serve.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Peas
Provide the main body and green flavour of the soup once mashed.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it heats, giving it a smooth, body-rich texture.
Butter
Carries the flour so it blends smoothly without lumps before thickening.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Milk
Adds moisture and mildness, softening the soup's flavour and consistency.

The step that matters

Thicken with flour rubbed in butter. Flour must be fully smoothed into the butter before it goes into the hot soup, otherwise it clumps. Letting the soup boil briefly after adding it lets the starch swell and thicken evenly.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Cashew nutfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, flour, butter, pepper, cream, 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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