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Rich Peas Soup

A thick soup made from split peas, brown gravy stock, and sautéed vegetables, seasoned with salt, cayenne pepper, and optional curry powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Rich Peas Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Drain the soaked split peas.

  2. Place the drained split peas in a large soup pot with the brown gravy stock.

  3. Boil gently for 30 minutes.

  4. In a skillet, fry the sliced onions, carrots, and turnips in butter until browned.

  5. Add the fried vegetables to the soup.

  6. Simmer until the peas are reduced to a pulp.

  7. Season with salt and cayenne pepper.

  8. Boil for 2-3 minutes.

Strain and finish

  1. Pass the soup through a sieve.

  2. Press the vegetables through the sieve.

  3. Add the desired amount of soup to a clean saucepan.

  4. Thin with fresh stock if too thick.

  5. Reduce by boiling if too thin.

  6. Add the sliced celery.

  7. Cook until tender.

  8. Mix curry powder with a few spoonfuls of soup. Stir it in before serving.

Serve

  1. Serve the soup hot with small fried sippets 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. Carrot + turniptop 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. Pepper + celerytop 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

Fine yellow split peas
Break down into a pulp to give the soup its body and thickness.
Brown gravy stock
Provides the main liquid and savory meaty flavor of the soup.
Onions
Fried in butter until browned, adding sweetness and savory depth.
Carrots
Fried until browned, adding sweetness and color to the soup.
Turnips
Fried until browned, adding earthy flavor and body to the soup.
Celery
Cooked until tender, adding a fresh, aromatic vegetable flavor.

The step that matters

Simmer until the peas are reduced to a pulp. Split peas must cook long enough to fully soften and break down; undercooked peas leave the soup grainy and thin, and sieving only works once they have collapsed.

Swap the peas

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

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

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