Why it works: Peas and bread work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 804 recipes. Both carry hexyl acetate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
Pea Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare the peas by soaking them overnight.
Make the soup
In a pot, add the soaked peas and cover with water.
Bring to a boil, then simmer until the peas are soft.
Mash the peas, then strain the mixture for a smooth soup.
Serve
Serve hot with bread on the side.
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.
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Peas + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Peas
- Their starch softens and breaks down during simmering, thickening the soup and giving it body.
The step that matters
Simmer until the peas are fully soft. Peas must be fully cooked so their starch gelatinises and the cell walls break down. Undercooked peas stay grainy, so mashing and straining cannot produce a smooth soup.
“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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