Name: Green Pea Soup
Ingredients: 3 quarts cold water; 1 heaped teaspoon Liebig’s Extract of Meat; 2 or 3 lumps of sugar; whites of 2 eggs; shells of 2 eggs; ⅓ cup sherry or marsala; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Sherry and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,107 recipes. Both carry piperonal, which smells bitter, coconut. The science ↓

Green Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Wash and scrape carrots, peel onions and turnips, and place them in a clean saucepan with water, pepper, and salt.
Boil gently until the liquid reduces to just under 2 quarts.
In a basin, combine the meat extract and sugar, then strain the boiling liquid over it through a fine sieve.
Stir well, return to a clean saucepan, and bring nearly to a boil.
Whisk the egg whites and add them along with the crushed shells to the saucepan.
Mix well and bring to a gentle boil for 10 minutes without moving the saucepan.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and let it stand for 20 minutes.
Pass the soup through a jelly bag until clear.
Bring the soup back to a boil, add the sherry, and serve.

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.

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.

Sherry + peppertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,107 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,777 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + sherrytop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,141 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,432 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).