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Suet Soup

A hearty soup made with suet, onions, split peas, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and peas are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,460 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Suet Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a soup pot, melt the suet over medium heat.

  2. Slice the onions and fry them until they are nicely browned, stirring constantly.

Simmer and serve

  1. Add the cold water and washed split peas to the pot.

  2. Bring to a boil and simmer for 4 hours.

  3. Use a potato masher to stir the soup before serving.

  4. Strain the soup through a colander into a tureen.

  5. Serve with tomato ketchup on the side, if desired.

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. Onion + peastop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

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

  2. Onion + coffeetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together232 recipes

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

  3. Coffee + peastop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together70 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Provides fat for frying the onions and adds rich flavour to the soup.
Onions
Browning in the fat builds sweet, savoury flavour as the onions caramelise.
Split peas
Break down during long simmering, thickening the soup and giving it body.

The step that matters

Browning the onions. Stirring constantly and frying until nicely browned develops deep, sweet flavour through caramelisation. Onions that are pale or burnt will change the taste of the whole soup.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, coffee):

  1. Cocoafits better
  2. Peanutfits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, coffee. 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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