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Pea and Bean Soup

A hearty soup of soaked white beans, split peas, potatoes, onions, celery, milk, and salt pork, thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pea and Bean Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the white beans and split peas overnight.

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, boil the soaked beans and peas until tender.

  2. In another pot, boil the potatoes, onions, and celery until soft.

  3. Add the milk and seasonings to the vegetable pot.

  4. Combine the cooked beans and peas with the vegetable mixture.

  5. Thicken the soup with flour as desired.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with slices of bread.

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.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Beans + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together655 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Beans + peastop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together949 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Beans + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  5. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

White beans
Break down while cooking to give the soup body and a thick, hearty texture.
Split peas
Soften into a smooth purée-like base that thickens the soup as it cooks.
Potatoes
Break down when boiled soft, adding starch that helps thicken and smooth the soup.
Milk
Adds richness and a creamy texture to the soup.
Flour
Starch that thickens the liquid when added to the soup.

The step that matters

Thicken the soup with flour as desired. Flour must be stirred in evenly to avoid lumps; it thickens as the starch absorbs liquid and swells with heat, so adding it gradually while the soup is hot helps control the final consistency.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, peas, milk, potato, onion, butter, bread):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, peas, milk, potato, onion, butter, 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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