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Cream of Pea Soup

A creamy soup made from canned peas, onion, butter, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cream of Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Drain the peas from the can.

  2. Fill the can with cold water and add it to the peas along with the sugar.

  3. Cook the peas until tender.

  4. Mash the cooked peas in the cooking water.

  5. Strain the mixture through a wire strainer.

Make the soup

  1. Scald the milk with the onion.

  2. Add the scalded milk to the strained peas.

  3. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  4. Add flour and seasoning to the melted butter.

  5. Stir in enough hot milk to create a smooth mixture.

  6. Add the smooth mixture to the soup.

  7. Season the soup to taste.

  8. Remove the onion before serving.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Peas
Provide the main body and flavor of the soup once mashed and strained.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a smooth, rich texture to the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor when melted with the flour base.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the mixture into a smooth base that gives the soup body.

The step that matters

Stir in the hot milk gradually to the butter and flour mixture. Adding liquid slowly while stirring keeps starch granules dispersed, preventing lumps and giving a smooth, thickened base.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, butter, sugar, pepper, milk):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, butter, sugar, pepper, milk. 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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