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Green Pea Soup

A soup made from boiled green peas, milk or cream, butter, and pepper, served over fried croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Green Pea Soup

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Green Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Cover the peas with water and add a pinch of coarse sea salt.

  2. Boil until tender, then skim the peas out and pass them through a colander.

  3. Return the peas to the cooking water and add milk or cream (or broth).

Finish and serve

  1. Season with butter and pepper to taste.

  2. Serve over fried croutons in a hot soup tureen.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Peas + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

  5. Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 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

Green peas
Provide the main body and flavor of the soup once cooked and passed through a colander.
Milk or cream
Adds richness and a smoother, creamier texture to the soup.
Butter
Adds fat for a rounded, rich flavor when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Boil until tender, then pass the peas through a colander. Peas must be fully softened so they purée smoothly; undercooked peas leave a grainy, fibrous texture that a colander cannot fully break down.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, pepper, bread):

  1. Lima beansfits about as well
  2. Cocoafits about as well
  3. Peasthe original
  4. Walnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, pepper, 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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