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Pease Soup

A hearty split pea soup with bacon, beef, carrots, onions, celery, herbs, and cloves, simmered slowly for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Pease Soup

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 ↓

Pease Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the dried split peas in lukewarm water overnight.

Make the soup

  1. In the morning, combine the soaked peas, cold water, bacon, and beef in a pot.

  2. Add the chopped carrots, onions, celery, sweet herbs, and cloves.

  3. Boil slowly for 5 to 6 hours until the peas are completely broken down.

Finish

  1. Strain the soup and serve.

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 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 + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Dried split peas
Break down during long simmering to thicken the soup and give it body.
Bacon
Releases fat and smoky flavor into the broth during the long simmer.
Lean fresh beef
Adds meaty savory flavor to the broth as it cooks.
Celery
Contributes aromatic flavor to the broth as it simmers.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth to the broth as they cook down.

The step that matters

Boil slowly until the peas are completely broken down. Peas need a long, gentle simmer to soften fully and release their starch, which thickens the soup. Too short a cook leaves grainy peas and a thin broth, and a hard boil can scorch the bottom of the pot.

Swap the peas

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, onion, celery, clove. 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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Green 380Split 228Baked Split 20Creamed 13Dried 10Winter 9 See all 368 →

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