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Soup

Green Peas Soup, Without Meat

A soup made from boiled green peas, butter, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, parsley, mint, and young peas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Green Peas Soup, Without Meat

Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Green Peas Soup, Without Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Cook and strain the peas

  1. Boil the peas in 3 quarts of water with salt for about 30 minutes.

  2. Drain and pound the peas, then mix with 5 pints of the boiling water.

  3. Return the mixture to the heat and simmer gently for 15 minutes.

  4. Press the mixture through a fine sieve.

Cook the vegetables in butter

  1. In a separate pan, simmer butter, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, parsley, and mint for nearly an hour, stirring occasionally.

  2. Season with salt and white pepper or cayenne.

Combine and serve

  1. Drain the vegetables from the butter and add them to the strained stock.

  2. Boil gently until the butter rises to the surface.

  3. Add the young peas and serve immediately.

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. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

  2. Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

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

  3. Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Cucumber + minttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together884 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Large green peas
Once pounded and sieved, they provide the body and thickness of the soup.
Butter
Carries flavour during cooking and adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Cucumbers
Add watery moisture and a light, fresh flavour as they cook.
Lettuce
Softens as it cooks, adding body and a mild sweetness.
Onions
Soften in the butter, adding a savoury aroma to the base.
Mint
Adds a fresh, aromatic lift to the soup.

The step that matters

Press the mixture through a fine sieve. Pushing the cooked peas through a fine sieve breaks down the remaining fibres and skins, giving the soup a smooth texture. Skipping or rushing this step leaves a grainy, uneven soup.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, butter, cucumber, lettuce, onion, parsley, mint):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, butter, cucumber, lettuce, onion, parsley, mint. 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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