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Peas Soup

A hearty soup made with split peas, ham, carrots, onions, celery, and stock, finished with butter and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Peas Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the peas overnight.

  2. Wash and drain the peas, then place them in a large saucepan.

  3. Add the ham, carrots, onions, and celery to the saucepan.

Make the soup

  1. Pour in the stock and simmer gently until the peas are reduced to pulp, stirring frequently.

  2. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve back into the saucepan.

  3. Bring the soup to a boil and skim off any foam.

  4. Season with pepper and salt, then stir in the butter.

  5. Add curry powder for extra flavor if desired.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with powdered mint or sage on the side.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried split peas
Break down into pulp to give the soup its body and thickness.
Ham
Adds savory, salty flavor to the stock as it simmers.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel when stirred in at the end.
Stock
Provides the liquid base that the peas cook in and carries the flavor.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the peas are pulp. Vigorous boiling can scorch the bottom and cause sticking while the peas are breaking down. Gentle heat with frequent stirring lets the starch release evenly and keeps the soup from burning.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Black-eyed peafits better
  3. Lentilsfits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, carrot, onion, celery, pork, butter, 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.

More pea soup recipes

Green 380Split 228Baked Split 20Creamed 13Dried 10Winter 9 See all 368 →

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