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Split Pea Soup

A hearty soup made from split peas, onion, butter, flour, milk, and optional ham bone.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Split Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the split peas and soak them overnight in 1 pint of cold water.

  2. In the morning, drain and rinse the peas thoroughly.

Cook the peas

  1. Add 1½ quarts of cold water and the chopped onion to the peas.

  2. Cook slowly until the peas are soft.

  3. Rub the cooked peas through a strainer.

  4. For added flavor, cook a small ham bone with the peas.

Finish the soup

  1. Make a white sauce.

  2. Add the strained liquid to the white sauce, cooking until the desired consistency is reached.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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. Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

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

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Split peas
Form the main body of the soup and thicken it as they soften and break down.
Butter
Carries flavor and adds richness to the white sauce.
Flour
Thickens the white sauce so it gives body to the soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the flavor of the soup.
Chopped onion
Adds savory aroma and background flavor as the peas cook.

The step that matters

Adding the strained liquid to the white sauce. The flour in the white sauce thickens as its starch swells with heat, and the soup keeps thickening as it simmers. Cook only until the desired consistency is reached, since it will thicken further as it sits.

Swap the peas

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, flour, pepper, milk. 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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