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Split Pea Soup

A hearty soup made with split peas, onion, butter, flour, milk, and bread croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Split Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Combine soaked split peas, hot water, and onion in a pot. Bring to a boil.

  2. Reduce heat and simmer for four hours, adding boiling water as needed.

  3. Mix butter and flour with a little cold water until smooth. Stir into the soup.

  4. Add milk and let boil for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

  5. Strain the soup through a sieve.

Add the croutons

  1. Cut bread into small squares. Fry in boiling suet until brown.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Peas + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

  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

Split peas
Form the body and thick texture of the soup as they break down during simmering.
Butter and flour
Together form a roux that thickens the soup and gives it a smoother body.
Milk
Adds richness and a creamier, softer flavour to the finished soup.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma and depth of flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmering the peas. Split peas need a long, gentle simmer to soften fully and release their starch, which thickens the soup. Heat that is too high can scorch the bottom of the pot, and stopping early leaves the peas firm and the soup thin.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, flour, milk, pepper, bread):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, flour, milk, 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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