Name: Ham and Split Pea Soup
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 5 h
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 1 piece (about 2½ pounds) smoked, bone-in picnic ham; 4 bay leaves; 1 pound (2½ cups) split peas, rinsed and picked through; 1 teaspoon dried thyme; 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil; 2 medium onions, chopped medium; 2 medium carrots, chopped medium; 2 medium stalks celery, chopped medium; 1 tablespoon unsalted butter; 2 medium cloves garlic, minced; Pinch sugar; 3 small new potatoes, scrubbed and cut into ½-inch dice (about ¾ cup); Ground black pepper; Minced red onion (optional); Balsamic vinegar

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).
Thyme + carrottop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,563 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Thyme + celerytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,193 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Thyme + olivetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,948 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
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 onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, peas, thyme, olive, carrot, celery, butter):

Tomatofits better
Leekfits better
Parsnipfits better
Onionthe original

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

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pork	100g cooked	242
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Pea	1/2 cup (72g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Red Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2

Ham and Split Pea Soup