Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Pea Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Boil cold roast beef bones until all the strength is extracted.
Add chopped onions to the pot.
Mix 3 heaping tablespoons of pease brose in cold water. Pour the mixture into the pot.
Let it boil briefly.
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.
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Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 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
- Pease brose
- Oatmeal-like thickener that swells in the hot liquid to give the soup body.
- Roast beef bones
- Release flavour and gelatin into the water as they simmer, giving the broth depth.
- Onions
- Add sweetness and aroma as they cook into the broth.
The step that matters
Mixing pease brose into cold water before pouring. Stirring the meal into cold water first keeps it from clumping, so it disperses evenly when it enters the hot broth and thickens smoothly.
“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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