Name: Split Pea Soup with Ham
Ingredients: 2 Tbs. olive oil; 1 yellow onion, finely chopped; 2 garlic cloves, minced; 1 smoked ham hock, about 1 1/2 lb.; 1 lb. green split peas, picked over and rinsed; 3 carrots, chopped; 2 stalks celery, chopped; 6 cups chicken broth; 1 tsp. dried thyme; 1 tsp. salt; 1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper; 1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 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

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, onion, garlic, clove, ham, carrot, celery):

Chickpeafits better
Lentilsfits better
Beansfits better
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, onion, garlic, clove, ham, carrot, celery. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pork	100g cooked	242
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Pea	1/2 cup (72g)	62
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Split Pea Soup with Ham