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Split Pea Soup

A hearty soup made from split peas, salt pork, onion, butter, flour, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Split Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the split peas overnight, then drain.

Make the soup

  1. In a large pot, add the peas, cold water, salt pork, and sliced onion.

  2. Simmer until the peas are very soft.

  3. Rub the mixture through a sieve to create a smooth texture.

Finish and serve

  1. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and flour.

  2. Add the butter and flour mixture to the pea puree.

  3. Stir in the salt, white pepper, and milk.

  4. Reheat the soup and serve hot.

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + porktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

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

Flour and butter 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

Split peas
Form the body of the soup and thicken it as they break down during simmering.
Salt pork
Adds savory fat and depth of flavor to the cooking water.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and combines with flour to thicken the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup when cooked with butter and stirred into the puree.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the soup's flavor.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a sieve. Peas must be very soft before sieving; under-cooked peas will not pass through smoothly and leave a grainy texture. Pressing them through breaks down the starch and fibre into a smooth purée.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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