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Split Pea Soup

A hearty soup made from split peas, water, pepper, onions, herring, celery, endive, mint, and fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Split Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Combine split peas and cold water in a large pot.

  2. Add Jamaica pepper, onions, and pickled herring.

  3. Boil until the mixture reduces by a quart.

  4. Stir in boiling water and boil for 15 minutes.

  5. Strain the soup through a colander.

Finish the soup

  1. Add celery, endive, and dried mint to the strained soup.

  2. Boil for 45 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent burning.

  3. Add fried bread to the soup before serving.

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. Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

  3. Celery + endivetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together160 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 long boiling to thicken the soup into a body.
Pickled herring
Adds a salty, savoury, fishy depth that flavours the broth.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic flavour as they soften in the broth.
Celery
Adds vegetable flavour and some fibrous texture to the finished soup.
Endive
Adds bitter, leafy notes and body as it cooks down in the soup.
Bread
Fried in butter for crispness, it adds crunch and richness when served.

The step that matters

Boil for 45 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Split peas are dense and settle quickly, so the bottom scorches easily. Constant stirring keeps solids suspended and heat even, preventing burnt flavour.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, pepper, onion, celery, endive, bread, butter):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, pepper, onion, celery, endive, bread, butter. 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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