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Ham and Pea Soup

A hearty soup made with ham bone, peas, and water, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Ham and Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Place the ham bone in a large pot with 3 quarts of cold water and 1 pint of dried peas.

  2. Bring to a boil and simmer slowly for 6 hours, until the peas are tender.

Strain and serve

  1. Use a potato masher to rub the peas through a sieve into a bowl.

  2. Return the strained soup to the pot, discarding the ham bone.

  3. Season the soup with salt and pepper, then heat it through.

  4. Serve with toast cut into half-inch dice or small fried bread cubes.

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. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Peas + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

  3. Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Ham + peastop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together402 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Dried peas
Break down during long simmering to thicken the soup and give it body.
Ham bone
Releases flavor into the water during long simmering, seasoning the soup.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly until the peas are tender. A gentle simmer lets the peas soften fully without breaking apart too early or scorching on the bottom of the pot. Full softening is what allows them to be pressed through a sieve smoothly.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, pepper, bread):

  1. Peasthe original
  2. Lima beansfits about as well
  3. Beansfits about as well
  4. Chestnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, pepper, bread. 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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