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To Make a Common Peas Soup

A soup made from split peas, water, bacon or beef bones, celery, turnip, flour, salt, cayenne pepper, and fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and turnip are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,418 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

To Make a Common Peas Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the soup

  1. Wash the split peas and soak them in water.

  2. In a pot, combine the peas, water, bacon or bones, celery, and turnip.

  3. Boil until reduced to 2 quarts.

  4. Work the mixture through a colander using a wooden spoon.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix a little flour with water and add it to the soup, boiling well.

  2. Slice another head of celery, and season with salt and cayenne pepper.

  3. Cut the bread into small dice, fry until light brown, and place in a dish.

  4. Pour the soup over the fried bread.

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. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Turnip + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Peas + turniptop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,350 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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
Break down during boiling to thicken the soup and give it body.
Flour
Mixed with water and boiled into the soup to thicken it further.
Bacon or roast beef bones
Release savory flavour into the soup as it simmers.
Celery
Adds aromatic flavour to the broth and a fresh vegetable note.

The step that matters

Boil until reduced to 2 quarts. Reducing the liquid concentrates the flavour and sets the body of the soup. Stopping too early leaves it thin and watery, while boiling too long can scorch it on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, celery, turnip, flour, pepper, bread):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, turnip, flour, pepper, bread. 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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