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Split Pea Soup

A hearty soup made from split peas, onion, celery, and bacon fat, finished with flour and toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,518 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Split Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Soak the peas

  1. Soak the peas in a saucepan with water and dripping or bacon fat for 3 hours on the back of the stove.

  2. Add cold water as needed to keep the peas covered.

  3. Simmer the peas for 20 minutes before the soup is needed.

Make the soup

  1. Dissolve the salt in water.

  2. Add the salt along with the onion and celery.

  3. Boil for 10 minutes.

  4. Strain through a colander.

  5. Beat the thick part with a wooden spoon.

  6. Return the strained mixture to the saucepan.

  7. Simmer.

Thicken and serve

  1. Mix the flour with cold water. Add a little hot broth. Stir it into the soup.

  2. Serve with diced toasted bread.

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. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Peas + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

  3. Peas + celerytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

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

  5. Celery + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Split peas
Provide the main body and starch that thicken the soup as they cook and break down.
Dripping or bacon fat
Adds fat and savoury flavour to the soup.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savoury depth as it softens in the soup.
Celery
Adds a fresh, aromatic vegetable note to the soup base.
Flour
Thickens the soup slightly when stirred in as a smooth paste.

The step that matters

Keep the peas covered with water while soaking and simmering. Split peas absorb water and can scorch or stick to the pan if they are exposed to air or cook dry, so adding cold water as needed keeps them cooking evenly and softening fully.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, celery, flour, bread):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, celery, flour, bread. 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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