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English Pea Porridge

A hearty soup made from split peas, onions, celery, potatoes, leeks, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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 ↓

English Pea Porridge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the onions.

  2. Chop the celery.

  3. In a frying pan, melt the butter.

  4. Sauté the onions and celery until golden brown.

  5. Transfer the onions and celery to a soup kettle with the split peas, water, potatoes, and leeks.

Cook and strain

  1. Cook slowly for one hour.

  2. Skim off any foam at the first boil.

  3. If the peas are not tender, continue boiling until they can be easily pressed through a sieve.

  4. Press the mixture through a puree sieve.

  5. Return the puree to the kettle.

  6. Bring to a boil.

Thicken and serve

  1. Mix 1 tablespoon of butter with 2 tablespoons of flour to a smooth paste.

  2. Stir the paste into the hot porridge until it boils.

  3. Season to taste.

  4. Serve.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Celery + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  4. Potato + leektop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30 recipes

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

  5. Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Split peas
Break down into a smooth puree that gives the porridge its body.
Onions
Browning in butter builds sweetness and savory depth in the base.
Potatoes
Starch helps thicken the porridge as they cook and soften.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and carries the flavor of the sautéed vegetables.
Flour
Starch in the butter paste thickens the porridge when stirred in and boiled.
Leeks
Add mild onion flavor and soften into the puree.

The step that matters

Stirring the butter and flour paste into the hot porridge. Flour must be fully smoothed into butter first, then stirred into hot liquid and brought to a boil. Starch granules swell and thicken only when hot, and lumps form if the paste is added cold or unevenly.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, celery, butter, potato, leek, flour):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, celery, butter, potato, leek, flour. 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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