Name: Clear Pea Soup
Ingredients: 2 quarts gravy; 1 quart young peas; 1 lettuce, finely chopped; 1 small sprig of mint

Why it works: Peas and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Clear Pea Soup

Ingredients

2 quarts gravy
1 quart young peas
1 lettuce, finely chopped
1 small sprig of mint

Directions

Boil 2 quarts of gravy in a pot.
Add 1 quart of young peas.
Stir in 1 finely chopped lettuce and 1 small sprig of mint.

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.

Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,137 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,293 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Lettuce + minttop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together569 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Young peas: Provide the main vegetable body and sweet, fresh flavor of the soup.
Lettuce: Adds soft leafy texture and a mild, fresh vegetable flavor to the soup.