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 ↓
Pea Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the peas
Soak the dry peas for 10 hours.
Add the cold water and boil for 3 hours.
Finish the soup
Stir in the milk, stock, salt, celery salt, white pepper, butter, and creamed flour.
Boil for 10 minutes.
For a smoother texture, pass the boiled peas through a colander.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Peas + celerytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,832 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Celery + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,905 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
- Dry peas
- Provide the main body, and their starch thickens the soup as they simmer.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid as its starch swells when heated.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and a softer, rounder flavor.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
- Stock
- Adds savory depth to the soup.
The step that matters
Boil for 10 minutes after adding the flour. Flour thickens only when its starch is heated in the liquid long enough to swell. Boiling also cooks out the raw flour taste, so the soup should not be rushed off the heat.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, milk, celery, butter, flour):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against peas, milk, celery, 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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