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Cheap Soup

A hearty soup made from split peas, potatoes, onions, herbs, and seasonings, simmered slowly until reduced.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cheap Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the split peas in cold water for a day.

Cook

  1. In a boiler, combine soaked peas, water, boiled potatoes, herbs, salt, pepper, and sliced onions.

  2. Cover tightly and boil gently for 5 hours, until only 2 gallons of soup remain.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

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

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 cooking to give the soup its body and thickness.
Boiled potatoes
Their starch helps thicken the soup and make it feel creamy.
Onions
Add savory aroma and sweetness as they soften in the simmering soup.

The step that matters

Cover tightly and boil gently for 5 hours. A gentle simmer under a tight lid controls evaporation, so the peas break down and thicken evenly without scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Black-eyed peafits better
  3. Sesamefits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pepper, onion. 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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