Name: Savory Soup
Ingredients: 2 cups cooked split peas, rubbed through a colander; 1 cup boiled mashed potatoes; ½ cup strained stewed tomatoes; Hot water, as needed for consistency; 1 sliced onion; Salt, to taste; ½ cup broken vermicelli (optional)

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 ↓

Savory Soup

Ingredients

2 cups cooked split peas, rubbed through a colander
1 cup boiled mashed potatoes
½ cup strained stewed tomatoes
Hot water, as needed for consistency
1 sliced onion
Salt, to taste
½ cup broken vermicelli (optional)

Directions

Make the soup

In a pot, combine the split peas, mashed potatoes, stewed tomatoes, and enough hot water to achieve the desired consistency.
Add the sliced onion and salt to taste.
Boil for a few minutes until well flavored with the onion.
Remove the onion and serve.

Add vermicelli (optional)

If desired, cook the broken vermicelli in boiling water for 10 minutes and add to the soup.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,798 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Peas + tomatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,058 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Peas + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,016 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Split peas: Form the body and thick, creamy texture of the soup.
Mashed potatoes: Add starch that thickens the soup and gives it a smooth, full body.
Stewed tomatoes: Add acidity and moisture that balance the earthy peas.
Onion: Contributes aromatic flavor as it simmers in the broth.