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Split Pea Soup

A hearty soup made from split peas, water, stock, onion juice, salt, pepper, and served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Split Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the split peas overnight in cold water.

  2. Drain the peas and add the boiling water.

Cook and finish

  1. Boil until soft, about two hours.

  2. Add the stock.

  3. Press the soup through a colander, then return it to the soup kettle.

  4. Add onion juice, salt, and pepper.

  5. Boil once more.

  6. Serve 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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

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

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

Split peas
Break down during long boiling to thicken the soup and give it body.
Stock
Adds savory liquid depth to the soup base.
Onion juice
Adds aromatic onion flavor to the soup.

The step that matters

Boil until soft, about two hours. The peas must cook fully so their starch breaks down and they can be pressed smooth. Undercooked peas stay grainy and hold their shape, leaving the soup thick and uneven instead of smooth.

Swap the peas

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, 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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