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Pea Soup

A hearty soup made from split peas, onions, turnip, carrot, celery, salt, pepper, and optional bones.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Pea Soup

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the split peas in cold water for 12 hours, preferably overnight.

  2. Combine 2 quarts of cold water and the soaked split peas in a saucepan.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Wash and peel the onions and turnip.

  5. Halve the onions and turnip.

  6. Wash and scrape the carrot clean.

  7. Cut off the ends of the celery root and wash it well.

Simmer

  1. Add all the vegetables to the boiling mixture.

  2. Add any cooked or uncooked bones.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Let the mixture boil slowly for 2 hours.

  5. Skim the soup occasionally.

  6. Remove the bones from the saucepan.

Strain and serve

  1. Place a colander over a basin and pour the soup into it.

  2. Rub the contents through with a wooden spoon.

  3. Serve the soup.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Split peas
Break down during long simmering to thicken the soup and give it body.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften into the base.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and earthy flavour to the soup.
Carrot
Adds gentle sweetness and colour to the soup.
Celery root
Adds savoury, aromatic depth to the soup base.

The step that matters

Let the mixture boil slowly for 2 hours. A gentle simmer lets the split peas break down fully and thicken the soup evenly. A hard boil can scorch the bottom of the pan and make the soup cloudy and uneven.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, turnip, carrot, 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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