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Soup

Cream of Pea Soup

A creamy soup made with peas, onion, butter, broth, and heavy cream, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cream of Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

  1. Melt butter in a pot over medium heat.

  2. Add chopped onion and sauté until soft.

  3. Add peas and broth.

  4. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

  5. Blend the mixture until smooth.

  6. Return the blended mixture to the pot.

  7. Stir in heavy cream and season with salt and pepper.

  8. Heat through before serving.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Peas + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,528 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Peas
Provide the main flavour and bulk, and their starch thickens the soup as it cooks and blends.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens in the butter.
Butter
Carries the onion's flavour and adds richness at the start of cooking.
Broth
Supplies the liquid that cooks the peas and onion into a soup base.
Heavy cream
Adds fat and a smooth, rich texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Blend until smooth. Blending breaks down the cooked pea cells and releases starch, which gives the soup its smooth, thick texture. Blending only briefly while hot, and in batches if the pot is full, helps avoid splatter and leaves no grainy bits.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Sesamefits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Peanutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, chicken, pepper, cream. 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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