Name: Green Pea
Ingredients: 1 large fat chicken; 1 slice of bacon; 2 quarts water; 2 quarts green peas; a little thickening (optional); coarse sea salt (to taste); black pepper (to taste)

Why it works: Chicken and peas are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,528 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Green Pea

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

Combine chicken, bacon, and water in an iron pot.
Bring to a boil.
Boil for about 1 hour.
Add green peas and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes.

Finish and season

Strain the soup through a fine colander.
Add thickening, salt, and black pepper to taste.

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.

Chicken + peastop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,528 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,331 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,958 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Green peas: Provide the main body and flavour of the soup once cooked and strained.
Chicken: Releases flavour and body into the water during long simmering, forming the base broth.
Bacon: Adds smoky, savoury fat that enriches the broth.