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Oream Pea Soup with Croutons

A soup made from dried green peas, water, onion, carrots, celery, seasoned with salt and pepper, served hot with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Oream Pea Soup with Croutons

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Rinse the peas and soak them in water overnight.

Cook the soup

  1. In a pot, combine soaked peas, water, onion, carrots, and celery.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Reduce heat and simmer until peas are tender, about 1 hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Blend the soup until smooth.

  2. Season the soup with salt and pepper.

  3. Serve the soup hot.

  4. Top the soup with croutons.

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. Onion + carrottop 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 green peas
Provide the main body and starch that thickens the soup as they soften.
Onion
Adds savory depth as it softens and sweetens during simmering.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and body to the simmered soup.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savory flavor to the simmering base.

The step that matters

Simmer until the peas are fully tender. Dried peas need long, gentle simmering to soften their starch fully. Undercooked peas leave the soup grainy and stop it from blending smooth.

Swap the peas

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

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

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

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