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Pea Soup

A hearty soup made with peas, salt pork, onion, celery seed, and sea salt, simmered for several hours.

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

Why it works: Onion and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,518 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Measure and wash the peas.

  2. Add the cold water to the peas and heat.

Make the soup

  1. Fry the salt pork with the chopped onion until browned.

  2. Add the onion and pork to the soup pot.

  3. Stir in the celery seed and coarse sea salt.

  4. Cover and boil for 4 to 5 hours.

  5. Once soft, strain the soup through a colander.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  3. Peas + celerytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

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

  5. Peas + porktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,589 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

Peas
Form the body of the soup as they soften and break down during long simmering.
Salt pork
Adds savory fat and smoky flavor to the broth as it renders and browns.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth as it softens and browns with the pork.

The step that matters

Long, covered boil until soft. The peas need sustained gentle heat over several hours to fully soften and break down, which is what gives the soup its body. Stopping early leaves the texture grainy and firm.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Black-eyed peafits better
  4. Peasthe original

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