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Vegetable Pea Soup

A soup made from split peas, potatoes, onion, and cream or butter, simmered until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Vegetable Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Cook the split peas in water until dissolved.

  2. Add the sliced potatoes and onion when the peas are nearly done.

  3. Once the potatoes and onion are cooked, rub the mixture through a colander.

  4. Add hot water to achieve a thick cream consistency.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in a little cream or butter and salt to taste.

  2. Reheat 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.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Peas + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,016 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

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

  4. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Onion + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Onion and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 cooking to thicken the soup and give it body.
Potatoes
Cook soft and blend into the purée, adding starch that thickens and smooths the texture.
Onion
Softens during cooking and adds savory aroma to the soup base.
Cream or butter
Adds fat for a richer mouthfeel and smoother texture.

The step that matters

Pressing the mixture through a colander. The peas, potatoes and onion must be fully cooked first so they pass through easily and form a smooth purée; undercooked pieces stay grainy and block the sieve.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Peanutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, cream. 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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