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Green Pea Soup

A hearty soup made with green peas, ham, onions, and butter, finished with milk and served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Green Pea Soup

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,122 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Green Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Combine green peas, butter, diced ham, sliced onions, parsley, and cold water in a stewpan.

  2. Rub the mixture together with your hands.

  3. Pour off the water.

  4. Cover the stewpan.

Cook and strain

  1. Cook over high heat, stirring occasionally until very tender.

  2. Add flour and mash the peas against the sides of the stewpan.

  3. Stir in stock, sugar, and season with pepper and salt.

  4. Boil for 5 minutes.

  5. Strain through a fine sieve into another stewpan.

Finish and serve

  1. Add boiling milk to the strained soup.

  2. Boil for another 5 minutes.

  3. Skim off any foam.

  4. Serve in a tureen with croutons of bread.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 body and flavor, thickening into the soup when cooked and mashed.
Flour
Thickens the soup, giving it a fuller, smoother body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor through the soup.
Stock or broth
Supplies the liquid base and savory depth of the soup.
Lean ham
Adds salty, savory meaty flavor to the soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the soup's flavor and texture.

The step that matters

Cover and cook until very tender. The peas must soften fully before mashing and straining; undercooked peas stay grainy and leave the soup with a rough texture and a raw, starchy taste.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, butter, ham, parsley, flour, sugar, pepper):

  1. Shallotbetter flavor fit
  2. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  3. Leekbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, butter, ham, parsley, flour, sugar, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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