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Green Peas

A creamy soup made with green peas, herbs, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Green Peas

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Green Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Shell the peas and wash the shells and lettuce.

  2. Shred the lettuce.

  3. Add the shredded lettuce to a saucepan with the peas, shells, parsley, mint, and sugar.

Make the soup

  1. Cook gently in butter for 10 minutes.

  2. Bring the stock to a boil.

  3. Season the stock with salt and pepper.

  4. Add the stock to the vegetables.

  5. Simmer until tender.

  6. Remove the herbs.

  7. Strain through a fine sieve.

  8. Bring the strained soup to a boil again.

  9. Add the previously boiled cream or milk.

  10. Strain.

Finish and serve

  1. Taste the soup.

  2. Adjust seasoning with more salt or sugar if needed.

  3. Serve.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Parsley + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + minttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,198 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Peas
Form the body of the soup and provide its fresh, sweet green flavour.
Butter
Gently cooks the vegetables and adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the finished soup.
Lettuce
Adds body and a mild sweetness while the soup cooks.
Stock
Provides the liquid base that carries the flavour of the vegetables.

The step that matters

Strain through a fine sieve. Pea skins and fibres stay tough unless removed, so straining produces a smooth texture. Cream should be boiled before it is added, and the soup should not be boiled hard after adding it, to avoid curdling and a grainy result.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, parsley, lettuce, pepper, sugar, cream, butter):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, parsley, lettuce, pepper, sugar, cream, butter. 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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