Name: Suet Soup
Ingredients: ¼ pound butter; 4 large onions; 4 quarts cold water; 1 large coffee cup split peas

Why it works: Onion and peas are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,460 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Suet Soup

Ingredients

¼ pound butter
4 large onions
4 quarts cold water
1 large coffee cup split peas

Directions

In a soup pot, melt the butter over medium heat.
Slice the onions and fry them until golden brown, stirring constantly.
Add the cold water and washed split peas to the pot.
Bring to a boil and simmer for 4 hours.
Before serving, mash the soup with a potato masher and strain through a colander into a tureen.
Serve with tomato ketchup on the side if desired.

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.

Onion + peastop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,460 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + peastop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,887 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Onion + coffeetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together232 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + coffeetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,442 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).