Name: Split-pea Soup
Ingredients: 1 cup split peas; 4 cups water; 2 ounces salt pork; Salt to taste; Fried croutons for serving

Why it works: Peas and pork 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 ↓

Split-pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Rinse the split peas and soak them in water for a few hours.
In a pot, combine the soaked peas, water, and salt pork.

Cook and finish

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until peas are tender.
Pass the mixture through a sieve to create a smooth soup.
Serve hot, garnished with fried croutons.

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.

Peas + porktop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,589 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Split peas: Form the bulk of the soup and thicken it as they break down during simmering.
Salt pork: Adds fat and savory flavor to the broth as it simmers with the peas.

The step that matters

Simmer until peas are tender. Peas that are not fully softened will stay grainy and will not purée smoothly when passed through a sieve. Keep the heat low enough for a gentle simmer so the peas cook evenly without scorching on the bottom of the pot.

“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.