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Split Pea Soup

A hearty soup made with split peas, stock, butter, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,331 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Split Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Pound leftover roast meat bones and break them on a clean meat board.

  2. Place the bones and trimmings in a soup kettle and cover the kettle with cold water.

  3. Set the kettle on low heat. Once the stock is boiling, skim the surface, then cover the kettle.

  4. Let the stock simmer for 4 hours.

  5. Strain the soup into a shallow pan and let it cool to remove fat from the surface.

Cook the peas and finish

  1. Boil the soaked split peas for 2-3 hours until soft.

  2. Rub the peas through a colander.

  3. Heat the strained soup an hour before serving.

  4. Add the peas to the boiling stock along with butter, pepper, and salt.

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. Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

  2. Peas + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Coffee + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Coffee + peastop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together70 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

Split peas
Break down into a thick, smooth body that gives the soup its texture.
Stock
Provides the liquid base and the meaty flavour of the soup.
Butter
Adds fat for a richer mouthfeel and rounder flavour.

The step that matters

Skimming and cooling the stock. Fat and foam rise to the surface of the stock; skimming while it boils and chilling the strained soup lets fat solidify so it can be removed, giving a cleaner, less greasy soup.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coffee, butter, pepper):

  1. Cocoafits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Hazelnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coffee, butter, 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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