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Pea Soup

A soup made from green peas, onion, water, flour, oil, milk, cream, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Pea Soup

Why it works: Peas and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,460 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Put the peas and onion into a soup pot.

  2. Pour in enough water to cover and boil for 45 minutes.

  3. Mash the mixture through a colander and add 1 pint of water.

Make the cream base and finish

  1. In a separate pan, cook the flour in the oil until light brown.

  2. Add the milk, cream, and salt to the flour mixture.

  3. Pour this into the soup, boil for a few minutes, and 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Peas + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,309 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  4. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Green peas
Form the bulk of the soup and give it its body and flavour.
Flour
Thickens the cream mixture when cooked in oil until lightly browned.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, mellowing the soup's texture.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, fuller mouthfeel to the soup.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour in oil until light brown. Cooking flour in fat first toasts the starch and removes raw flour taste, and it thickens more evenly when the liquid is added. Stop at light brown so the roux does not taste bitter or lose thickening power.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Cashew nutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

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