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Dried Pea Soup

A hearty soup made from dried split peas, ham bone, celery, onion, butter, flour, and stock, seasoned with salt, pepper, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Dried Pea Soup

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 ↓

Dried Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Wash and soak the dried split peas overnight.

  2. Drain the peas and cover them with cold water in a pot.

  3. Add the ham bone and boil slowly for four hours.

  4. Add the diced celery and cook until the peas are tender.

Make the roux and finish

  1. In a separate pan, melt the butter and fry the chopped onion until brown.

  2. Stir in the flour and gradually add one cup of the soup stock.

  3. Combine this mixture with the soup, season with salt, pepper, and sugar.

  4. Bring to a boil and serve with croutons.

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.

  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 and thicken the liquid during long simmering.
Ham bone
Adds savory, smoky flavor to the cooking water as it simmers.
Butter
Carries the onion's flavor and forms the fat base for the flour thickener.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth when fried until browned.
Flour
Thickens the stock and adds body to the soup when cooked with butter.
Soup stock
Supplies extra liquid and savory flavor to the thickened base.

The step that matters

Simmering the peas until tender. Split peas need a long, gentle simmer to soften fully and release starch that thickens the soup. Boiling too hard can scorch the bottom or leave the peas unevenly cooked.

Swap the peas

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

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

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