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Peas, Green, Soup

A soup made from green peas, butter, lettuce, mint, onion, spinach, and stock, finished with sugar and arrowroot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and spinach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 427 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Peas, Green, Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. Set aside a handful of shelled peas for later use.

  2. In a stewpan, combine the remaining peas, butter, lettuce, mint, onion, salt, and spinach.

  3. Steam the vegetables gently until soft, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.

  4. Press the mixture through a fine sieve and mix with 2 quarts of stock or water.

  5. Return the soup to the saucepan, add sugar and arrowroot mixed with water, and stir well.

  6. Bring to a boil and skim carefully.

Finish and serve

  1. In another saucepan, boil the reserved peas with ½ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon powdered sugar until tender, then drain.

  2. Add the drained peas to the soup and serve hot, garnished with powdered mint.

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. Lettuce + spinachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together427 recipes

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

  2. Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Lettuce + arrowroottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Spinach + arrowroottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 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

Green peas
Provide the main flavour and body of the soup once puréed.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the soup.
Lettuce
Adds moisture and a mild, sweet vegetable flavour while softening.
Onion
Builds a savoury aromatic base as it softens with the peas.
Spinach
Adds colour and a deeper green, earthy flavour to the purée.
Arrowroot
Thickens the soup to a smooth, glossy consistency.

The step that matters

Pressing the mixture through a fine sieve. Pressing the softened vegetables through a fine sieve breaks down their cell walls and removes fibrous skins, giving a smooth texture. Skipping or rushing this leaves the soup gritty.

Swap the mint

The recipe marks mint as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, butter, lettuce, onion, spinach, sugar, arrowroot):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, butter, lettuce, onion, spinach, sugar, arrowroot. 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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