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Split Pea Soup

A hearty soup made with split peas, lima beans, celery, carrot, onion, and bologna sausage.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Split Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Add 2 quarts of water and salt to taste to a large pot with a piece of soup meat.

  2. Bring to a boil and skim off any scum that forms.

Simmer

  1. Add 1 pint of yellow split peas, 3 chopped celery stalks, 1 chopped carrot, 1 chopped onion, and ½ cup of lima beans.

  2. Reduce heat and simmer for 4 to 5 hours.

  3. Half an hour before serving, stir in small pieces of bologna sausage.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Peas + lima beanstop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together85 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Peas + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,994 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Yellow split peas
Break down during long simmering to thicken the soup and give it body.
Lima beans
Add starch and texture, helping thicken the soup as they soften.
Celery
Adds aromatic depth and savory flavor as it softens in the broth.
Onion
Contributes aromatic sweetness and savory flavor as it cooks down.

The step that matters

Skim off scum after the boil. Foam that rises as the water heats contains impurities and proteins; skimming it early keeps the broth clean-tasting and clear rather than murky or bitter.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, celery, carrot, lima beans):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, celery, carrot, lima beans. 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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