Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Dried Pea Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the peas
In a large pot, boil the peas and bacon (or butter/lard) until the peas are tender enough to mash.
Make the broth
In a separate pot, boil the mutton or beef with salt, pepper, carrots, and turnips in 1 gallon of water for 2 hours.
Combine and finish
Strain the cooked peas through a sieve and add them to the meat and vegetable broth.
Let the soup boil for an additional hour before serving.
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.
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Peas + carrottop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,994 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Peas + turniptop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,350 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Pepper + turniptop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,252 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
- Dried peas
- Provide the main body and thickness once cooked and strained into the soup.
- Bacon
- Adds smoky, savory fat flavor to the peas as they cook.
- Carrots
- Contribute sweetness and body to the vegetable broth.
- Turnips
- Add mild sweetness and earthy flavor to the broth.
- Mutton or beef
- Adds meaty richness and savory depth to the broth over long simmering.
The step that matters
Straining the cooked peas. Peas must be fully tender so they break down and pass through the sieve smoothly. Under-cooked peas stay grainy and can clog the sieve, leaving the soup coarse.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, carrot, turnip, mutton):
- Beansfits better
- Lentilsfits about as well
- Peasthe original
- Chestnutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, carrot, turnip, mutton. 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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