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Green Pea Soup

A hearty soup of lamb, peas, potatoes, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Green Pea Soup

Why it works: Peas and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,016 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Green Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, combine the lamb and cold water, then add the coarse sea salt.

  2. Boil gently for 2 hours, then skim the surface to remove impurities.

Add the vegetables

  1. Add the shelled peas and pepper, then boil for an additional 30 minutes.

  2. Stir in the scraped young potatoes, cover, and boil for another 30 minutes.

Thicken and serve

  1. In a small bowl, work together the butter and flour until smooth.

  2. Add the butter and flour mixture to the soup 10-12 minutes before serving.

  3. Serve the soup in a tureen, with the meat and parsley sauce on a separate dish.

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. Peas + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,016 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Lamb + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together520 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and fat, and with flour helps give the soup a smooth, silky body.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the soup as its starch swells with heat, giving it more body.
Shelled peas
Provide the main green flavour and sweetness, and break down to thicken the soup slightly.
Young potatoes
Add starch and body, softening as they cook into the broth.
Lamb
Gives the broth its meaty, savoury flavour as it simmers for hours.

The step that matters

Adding the butter and flour mixture. Flour must be fully worked into the butter and added near the end so it thickens without lumps. Stirring it in just before serving lets the starch swell evenly while the soup stays hot enough to thicken.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, pepper, potato, butter, flour):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, potato, butter, flour. 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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