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Gravy Soup Thickened with Yellow Peas

A thickened beef soup made with yellow peas, onions, and gravy, seasoned with pepper, salt, celery, and beet leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Gravy Soup Thickened with Yellow Peas

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place the shin of beef in a pot with 6 quarts of water, yellow peas, and onions.

  2. Bring to a gentle boil until the meat releases its juices.

  3. Strain the mixture through a sieve.

  4. Add 1 quart of strong gravy to the strained liquid to make it brown.

  5. Season with pepper and salt to taste.

  6. Add a little celery and beet leaves. Boil until tender.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

Yellow peas
Break down during long boiling to thicken the soup and give it body.
Shin of beef
Releases juices and gelatin into the water, adding savory depth to the broth.
Strong gravy
Darkens the soup and adds concentrated meaty flavor.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic flavor as they cook into the broth.

The step that matters

Bring to a gentle boil. A gentle simmer lets the meat release its juices and the peas soften evenly. A hard, rapid boil can break up the peas and cloud the broth.

Swap the peas

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, pepper, celery. 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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