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Green-pea Soup

A hearty soup made with veal or lamb, green peas, new potatoes, butter, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,016 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Green-pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Wash the meat.

  2. Place the meat in a large pot with the cold water.

  3. Cook gently for 2 hours.

  4. Add salt a little before the meat is done.

  5. Remove the meat and keep it warm.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the peas and potatoes to the broth and cook until tender.

  2. Rub the butter and flour together, then stir into the soup along with some pepper.

  3. Serve the meat with a parsley sauce, or cut the meat into pieces and serve it with the soup.

  4. Alternatively, cook the peas in the broth, then strain and add half a pint of peas and chopped lettuce.

  5. Cook until done, season, and thicken with the butter and flour.

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 + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,016 recipes

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Veal or lamb
Provides the meat and flavour that make the broth rich.
Green peas
Give the soup its body, colour and sweet, vegetal flavour.
New potatoes
Break down slightly as they cook, adding starch and body to the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel when stirred into the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup when rubbed with butter and stirred in.

The step that matters

Thickening with butter and flour. Flour stirred in raw can clump and leave lumps. Rubbing it with butter first coats the starch grains so they disperse evenly, and the soup should be kept at a simmer while it thickens.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, flour, potato, pepper):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, flour, potato, pepper. 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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