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Pea Soup, with Salt Pork or Beef

A hearty soup made with split peas, vegetables, and salt pork or beef, thickened with flour or biscuits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pea Soup, with Salt Pork or Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel, clean, and chop the vegetables.

  2. Wash the meat in cold water.

Make the soup

  1. Add fresh cold water, vegetables, and split peas to a large pot.

  2. Boil gently until the peas are soft.

  3. Add the meat to the soup.

  4. Simmer gently until cooked.

  5. Remove the meat and keep it warm.

  6. Mix flour with cold water to make a smooth batter.

  7. Stir the batter into the soup to prevent burning.

  8. Boil the soup for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. 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. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peastop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,994 recipes

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

  4. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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 as they cook, thickening the soup and giving it body.
Salt pork or beef
Releases fat and savory flavor into the broth as it simmers.
Flour or broken biscuits
Starch that thickens the soup as it cooks, giving a smoother texture.
Mixed vegetables
Add sweetness and aromatic flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Stir the batter into the soup to prevent burning. Flour settles and scorches on the pot bottom if left unstirred, and a smooth batter stirred in evenly thickens the soup without lumps.

Swap the peas

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, flour, carrot, onion, 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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