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Anna Roubik

A hearty split pea soup with ham bone, celery, onion, butter, flour, and soup stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper 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 ↓

Anna Roubik

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Wash and soak the dried split peas overnight.

  2. Drain the peas and cover with three quarts of cold water, add a ham bone, and boil slowly for four hours.

  3. Add one-fourth cup of diced celery and cook until the peas are tender.

Make the roux and finish

  1. Melt two tablespoons of butter. Add one small finely cut onion and fry until brown.

  2. Add two tablespoons of flour and gradually stir in one cup of soup stock.

  3. Add this mixture to the rest of the soup.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and a teaspoon of sugar.

  5. Bring to a boil and serve with croutons.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

675Calories
19 gProtein
13 gFat
119 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 9 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Pea1/2 cup (72g)62
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Soupnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Peas + celerytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Dried split peas
Form the body of the soup as they break down during long simmering.
Butter
Carries the onion's flavour and forms the base for the flour thickener.
Flour
Thickens the soup when cooked in fat and stirred into the stock.
Onion
Adds savoury depth as it browns in the butter.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and stock mixture. Flour must be cooked briefly in butter and stirred in gradually to avoid lumps. Adding it all at once, or without stirring, leaves raw flour clumps that do not dissolve smoothly into the soup.

Swap the peas

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

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

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