Why it works: Peas and bread work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 804 recipes. Both carry hexyl acetate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
Split-pea Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Put split peas into water and boil until soft, about 2 hours.
Pass the mixture through a sieve.
Return the liquid and peas to the pot and add boiling water to achieve desired consistency.
Stir in lard or bacon, salt, and cayenne pepper.
If too thin, thicken with a little flour and boil until done.
Serve
Toast bread, cut into small pieces, and place in a tureen.
Pour the soup over the toasted bread.
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.
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Peas + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together804 recipes
Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).
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Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,331 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Peas + flourtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,837 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Split peas
- Break down when boiled to give the soup its body and thick texture.
- Lard or bacon
- Adds fat, which carries flavour and gives the soup a richer mouthfeel.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup when it is too thin, through starch swelling in the liquid.
The step that matters
Boiling the peas until soft before sieving. Peas must be fully softened so they pass through the sieve smoothly. Under-cooked peas stay grainy and leave lumps, and the soup will not reach a smooth texture.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, flour, bread):
- Chestnutfits better
- Lentilsfits better
- Chickpeafits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, flour, 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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