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Pea Soup

A hearty soup made with split peas, potatoes, onions, pork or ham bone, seasoned with pepper, salt, celery seed, parsley, and served with bread cubes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Pea Soup

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the split peas in cold water overnight.

  2. In a pot, combine the soaked peas, water, potatoes, onions, and pork or ham bone.

Cook the soup

  1. Cover the pot tightly and boil slowly for 5 hours.

  2. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt to taste, and add celery seed for flavor.

  3. If using canned peas, use 3 pints of water, mash, and strain.

Finish and serve

  1. Serve the pork on a platter with the vegetables.

  2. Boil the extract and add chopped parsley.

  3. Pour over browned 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.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 the long simmer to thicken the soup and give it body.
Potatoes
Their starch softens and thickens the broth, adding body and mild sweetness.
Onions
Soften during cooking, adding sweetness and savory aroma to the broth.
Pork or ham bone
Releases fat and savory flavor into the water as it simmers.
Bread
Browned cubes add crunch and absorb some liquid when poured over.

The step that matters

Keep the boil slow and the pot covered for the full 5 hours. Gentle, steady heat lets the split peas soften and break down into a thick soup without scorching on the bottom. A hard boil can burn the base and leave the peas unevenly cooked.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, pork, pepper, celery, parsley, bread):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, pork, pepper, celery, parsley, 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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