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Common Peas Soup

A hearty soup made from split peas simmered in beef broth with seasoning and served with bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Common Peas Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Wash the split peas.

  2. Soak them overnight.

  3. Boil the peas with the baking soda in just enough water to mash them.

Make the soup

  1. Add the peas to the beef broth.

  2. Simmer gently for 1 hour.

  3. Remove any scum.

  4. Pass the mixture through a sieve.

  5. Reheat as needed.

  6. Season with salt and cayenne or black pepper.

Serve

  1. Serve with fried or toasted bread and optional sliced celery.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Peas + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

  4. Peas + celerytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Split peas
Break down during cooking to thicken the broth into a smooth, body-rich soup.
Baking soda
Raises the pH of the peas, helping them soften and break down more quickly.
Beef broth
Forms the liquid base and carries the savory flavor of the soup.

The step that matters

Boil the peas with the baking soda in just enough water to mash them. Too much water dilutes the peas and slows thickening, while the small amount of baking soda helps the skins and starch soften so the peas can be pushed through a sieve smoothly.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, beef, filbert, pepper, bread):

  1. Celerythe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, beef, filbert, pepper, bread. 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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