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Pea Soup

A hearty soup made with split peas, salt pork, onion, pepper, and salt, served with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Pea Soup

Why it works: Pork and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the split peas overnight.

  2. In the morning, place 3 quarts of water in a kettle with a piece of salt pork.

Cook

  1. Add the soaked peas and 1 onion.

  2. Boil slowly for 5 hours.

  3. Strain through a colander.

  4. Season with pepper and salt.

  5. Add boiling water if the soup is too thick.

Serve

  1. Serve with toasted bread cut into small pieces.

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. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

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

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

  4. Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

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

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

Split peas
Break down during long simmering to thicken the soup and give it body.
Salt pork
Releases fat and savory flavor into the water as it simmers.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness that rounds out the soup's flavor.

The step that matters

Boil slowly for 5 hours. A gentle simmer lets the peas soften and break down evenly without scorching on the bottom. A hard boil can burn the base and leave the texture uneven.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, onion, pepper, bread):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, onion, 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.

More pea soup recipes

Green 380Split 228Baked Split 20Creamed 13Dried 10Winter 9 See all 368 →

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