Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Split Pea Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the peas
Pick over the split peas to remove any blemished ones.
Wash and soak them in cold water overnight.
Drain the peas.
Simmer the soup
Place them in a soup pot with the cold water and salt pork.
Simmer gently for seven hours, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.
After six hours, add the pepper, parsley, onion, and celery.
If the soup becomes too thick, add boiling water to reach a pourable consistency.
Finish and serve
Once cooked, strain the soup through a sieve and return it to the pot.
Beat the flour and butter together until creamy.
Stir the mixture into the soup and simmer for an additional 30 minutes.
Taste and add salt if needed.
Optionally, stir in a quart of hot milk before serving.
Serve with small squares of fried bread on the side.
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.
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Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,810 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Split peas
- Form the body of the soup as they cook down and thicken the liquid.
- Salt pork
- Adds fat and savory flavor that carries through the long simmer.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup when blended with butter and stirred in at the end.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps make a smooth paste with the flour for thickening.
- Onion
- Contributes aromatic sweetness and depth to the soup base.
The step that matters
Stirring during the long simmer. Split peas are dense and settle, so they scorch on the bottom of the pot over seven hours. Occasional stirring keeps heat even and prevents burning, and the soup thickens as the peas break down.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, pepper, parsley, pork, onion, celery):
- Black-eyed peafits better
- Beansfits better
- Chickpeafits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, pepper, parsley, pork, onion, celery. 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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