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Split Pea Soup

A hearty soup made with split peas, water, corned beef, celery, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Split Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the split peas overnight.

  2. In the morning, add water to the peas until there are 4 quarts.

Cook the soup

  1. Boil the mixture until the peas can be pressed through a sieve.

  2. Return the soup to the kettle and add the corned beef, celery, salt, and pepper.

  3. Simmer until heated through.

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

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Beef + celerytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Peas + beeftop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,044 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Split peas
Break down as they cook, thickening the soup and giving it its body.
Corned beef
Adds savory, salty meaty flavor to the soup.
Celery
Adds a fresh, aromatic vegetable flavor to the soup.

The step that matters

Boil until the peas can be pressed through a sieve. Split peas must be fully softened before straining, or they stay grainy and the soup will not be smooth. Their starch releases as they break down, which thickens the soup and gives it a creamy body. Stopping early leaves the texture thin and gritty.

Swap the peas

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, 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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