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A Cheap Green Peas Sovp

A simple soup made from green peas, cucumbers, lettuce, onion, butter, herbs, and a broth of boiled pea shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 ↓

A Cheap Green Peas Sovp

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liquid

  1. Wash the pea shells thoroughly and boil them in salted water for 20 to 30 minutes until tender.

  2. Strain the shells and press the pods with a wooden spoon to extract the liquid.

  3. Measure the liquid and pour 2 quarts into a clean saucepan. Bring to a boil.

Simmer the soup

  1. Add 1 quart of green peas, chopped cucumbers, chopped lettuces, and thinly sliced onion that has been stewed in butter for 30 minutes.

  2. Add parsley and mint leaves, then simmer gently for 1 hour.

  3. Season with salt and white pepper or cayenne to taste.

Finish and serve

  1. Press the mixture through a fine sieve, heat again, and serve with small fried snippets.

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. 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

Green peas
Provide the main body of flavour and a soft, thickening texture when simmered and pressed.
Lettuces
Add soft leafy bulk and mild sweetness that rounds out the soup's body.
Cucumbers
Contribute moisture and a light, fresh character to the simmered soup.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma, mellowed by slow stewing in butter.
Butter
Carries the onion's flavour and adds richness to the soup base.

The step that matters

Press the mixture through a fine sieve. Pressing cooked peas, lettuce and cucumber through a fine sieve breaks down their cell walls and removes fibrous bits, giving the smooth, even texture the soup depends on. Skipping or rushing this leaves a grainy result.

Swap the white pepper

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

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

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