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A Cheap Green Peas Soup

A soup made from green peas, cucumbers, lettuce, onion, and herbs, simmered with broth from pea shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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A Cheap Green Peas Soup

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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pea stock

  1. Wash the pea shells thoroughly and add them to boiling salted water.

  2. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes until tender, then strain and press the pods with a wooden spoon.

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

Make the soup

  1. Add 1 quart of green peas, chopped cucumbers, chopped lettuces, and 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.

  4. Press the mixture through a fine sieve, reheat, and serve with small fried bread slices.

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

Green peas
Give the soup its body and sweet, vegetal flavour as they soften in the stock.
Lettuces
Add soft leafy body and a mild, fresh flavour that thickens the soup as it cooks.
Cucumbers
Contribute a cool, fresh flavour and a little moisture to the soup.
Onion
Adds savoury depth as it softens slowly in butter before going into the soup.
Butter
Carries flavour from the onion and adds richness to the soup.

The step that matters

Simmering after the vegetables go in. Simmering gently for a full hour softens the peas and lettuce completely so the sieved soup is smooth. Boiling hard can break down the green colour and dull the fresh flavour of the herbs and vegetables.

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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