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Pea Soup

A hearty soup made from split peas, water, vegetables, salt pork, milk, and served with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Pea Soup

Why it works: Carrot and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the split peas overnight.

  2. Drain the split peas.

Make the soup

  1. Add 2 quarts of water, carrot, onion, celery or celery seed, and salt pork.

  2. Boil steadily.

  3. Stir often to prevent burning.

  4. Keep boiling water on hand to add as needed.

  5. Strain the soup through a coarse sieve.

  6. Add 1 cup of milk after the soup is done for improved flavor.

Serve

  1. Serve with toasted bread.

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

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

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

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

  3. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Peas + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Split peas
Break down during long boiling to thicken the soup and give it body.
Salt pork
Adds savory fat and smoky, meaty flavor to the broth.
Milk
Adds richness and softens the soup's flavor when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Stir often to prevent burning. Split peas are dense and settle on the bottom of the pot, where they scorch easily. Frequent stirring keeps them suspended and prevents the sugars and starches from burning, which would taint the whole pot.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, carrot, pork, milk, bread):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, carrot, pork, milk, bread. 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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