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Split Pea Soup

A hearty soup made from split peas, potatoes, celery root, parsley, onion, butter, flour, and optional sausages.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Split Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the soup

  1. Soak the split peas in lukewarm water overnight.

  2. In the morning, boil the peas with the potatoes, celery root, parsley, and onion for two hours.

  3. When the soup has reduced to half its quantity, remove the vegetables.

  4. Press the mixture through a colander.

Thicken and season

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour and let it boil.

  3. Briskly stir in part of the soup.

  4. Add the stirred portion back to the whole mixture.

  5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve

  1. Prepare croutons in the soup tureen.

  2. Boil little sausages in the strained soup.

  3. Serve the soup.

  4. Serve the sausages as an entrée.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Split peas
Their starch and fiber thicken the soup and give it its body and earthy flavor.
Potatoes
Their starch helps thicken the soup and gives it a smooth, creamy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and rounding the soup's texture.
Flour
Cooked in the butter, it forms a roux that further thickens the soup.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour into the butter and soup. Flour must be cooked briefly in the butter and then whisked in briskly with soup so it disperses evenly. Otherwise it clumps into lumps instead of thickening the soup smoothly.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, celery, parsley, onion, butter, flour, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, celery, parsley, onion, butter, flour, 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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