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Puree of Split Peas

A creamy split pea puree made with ham bone, onion, carrot, celery, spices, and stock, served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery 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 ↓

Puree of Split Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the split peas in cold water and drain.

Make the puree

  1. Braise the ham bone, onion, carrot, celery, and mixed spices in a pot.

  2. Add the peas to the pot.

  3. Cover with half the stock and water.

  4. Cook until the peas are tender.

  5. Remove from heat and rub through a fine sieve.

  6. Return the puree to a clean saucepan.

  7. Add more stock to achieve the desired thickness.

  8. Boil the puree.

Season and serve

  1. Season with salt and pepper.

  2. Serve with croutons.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 puree as they soften and break down during cooking.
Ham bone
Adds savoury depth and flavour to the stock as it simmers with the peas.
Onion
Builds aromatic sweetness and flavour base when braised at the start.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and body to the flavour base.
Celery
Contributes aromatic savouriness to the flavour base.
Stock
Provides liquid that cooks the peas and sets the final thickness of the puree.

The step that matters

Rub through a fine sieve. Pushing the cooked peas through a fine sieve breaks them into a smooth purée. Skipping or rushing this leaves a grainy texture, since unbroken pea skins and fibres stay in the soup.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, onion, carrot, celery, pepper):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Black-eyed peafits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, onion, carrot, celery, pepper. 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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