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Pea Soup, with Salt Pork or Beef

A hearty soup made with split peas, mixed vegetables, and salt pork or beef, thickened with flour or biscuits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and peas are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,589 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pea Soup, with Salt Pork or Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Add fresh cold water, mixed vegetables, and split peas to a camp kettle. Boil gently until peas are soft.

  2. Wash the meat in cold water. Add it to the soup. Simmer gently until cooked. Remove and keep warm.

Thicken and serve

  1. Mix flour with cold water to form a smooth batter. Stir batter into soup to prevent burning. Boil for 30 minutes and serve.

  2. If using biscuits, soak them in cold water before adding instead of flour.

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. Pork + peastop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,589 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Peas + flourtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,837 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Split peas
Break down as they cook, giving the soup its body and thickness.
Salt pork or beef
Adds savoury, meaty flavour and fat to the broth as it simmers.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it boils, giving a smoother, heavier texture.
Mixed vegetables
Add sweetness, aroma and body to the broth as they cook.

The step that matters

Stir the flour batter into the soup. Flour settles quickly and scorches on the bottom of the pot if not stirred in well. Mixing it smooth with cold water first prevents lumps and burning.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Black-eyed peafits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, flour, 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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