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Dried Pea Soup

A hearty soup made from dried split peas, onions, salt pork, and seasoned with pepper, celery seed, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Dried Pea Soup

Why it works: Pepper and celery 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

Make the soup

  1. Combine split peas and very soft water in a pot.

  2. Add chopped onions, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Boil for 2 hours.

  4. Mash the mixture well and pass it through a sieve.

  5. Return the liquid to the pot.

  6. Thicken with butter mixed with flour.

  7. Add slices of salt pork and pounded celery seed.

  8. Boil until the pork is cooked.

Serve

  1. Serve with fried bread cubes in the tureen, then pour the soup over.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Split peas
Break down during boiling to give the soup its body and thick texture.
Butter mixed with flour
Roux-style thickener that adds richness and smooths the soup's consistency.
Salt pork
Adds savory fat and meaty flavor as it cooks into the soup.
Onions
Build aromatic sweetness and depth as they cook in the broth.
Celery seed
Contributes a warm, earthy aroma that flavors the soup.

The step that matters

Mash and sieve the cooked mixture. Peas must be fully softened before mashing, or the sieve will not separate a smooth purée and the soup will stay grainy.

Swap the peas

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

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

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