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Soup

Green Pea Soup

A soup made with beef or veal, bacon, mint, water, and young green peas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Green Pea Soup

Why it works: Mint and peas are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Green Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef or veal and bacon into pieces.

  2. Place them in a soup kettle with the mint and water.

Make the broth

  1. Boil moderately and skim the surface well.

  2. Once the meat is tender, strain it out.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the green peas to the broth and boil until they dissolve and thicken the soup, giving it a green color.

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.

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.

  1. Mint + peastop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

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

  2. Beef + peastop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,044 recipes

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

  3. Beef + minttop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together360 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

Beef or veal
Releases flavor and body into the broth as it simmers, giving the soup its savory base.
Bacon
Adds fat and smoky, savory flavor that carries through the broth.
Green peas
Break down as they boil, thickening the soup and turning it green.
Mint
Adds a fresh, aromatic note to the broth.

The step that matters

Boil the peas until they dissolve. Peas must cook long enough to break down and thicken the soup. Prolonged boiling, however, dulls their bright green chlorophyll, so the soup can turn olive-brown if it boils too long.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, peas):

  1. Mintthe original
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Pepperfits less well
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, peas. 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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