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Green Pea Soup

A soup made from shelled peas, water, milk, onion, butter, flour, salt, and pepper.

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

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Green Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the peas

  1. Combine peas, boiling water, and onion in a saucepan.

  2. Cook until tender, about 30 minutes.

  3. Drain the water, reserving it for later use.

  4. Mash the peas finely.

  5. Add the reserved water to the mashed peas.

  6. Strain through a fine sieve.

  7. Return the mixture to the saucepan.

Finish the soup

  1. Mix flour and butter together.

  2. Add the flour and butter mixture to the peas along with salt and pepper.

  3. Gradually stir in the boiling hot milk.

  4. Beat well and cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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

Shelled peas
Form the body of the soup and give it its green colour and flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and smoothing the texture of the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it cooks with the butter and milk, giving it body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mildness, softening the soup's flavour and texture.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the boiling hot milk. Adding the milk slowly while stirring keeps the flour and butter evenly dispersed, so the soup thickens smoothly without lumps. Keeping the milk hot helps the mixture stay at cooking temperature.

Swap the peas

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, onion, butter, flour, pepper. 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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