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Split Pea Soup

A hearty soup made with split peas, potatoes, celery root, parsley, onion, beef, sausages, and thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 peas

  1. Soak the peas in lukewarm water overnight or wash them in warm water by rubbing through your hands.

  2. Combine the soaked peas and water in a large pot.

Make the soup

  1. Boil the mixture for about 2 hours with the potatoes, celery root, parsley, and onion.

  2. Once the soup has reduced to about half, remove the vegetables.

  3. Press the mixture through a colander.

  4. Add the beef to the strained soup.

  5. Boil the beef until tender.

  6. Remove the beef from the soup.

  7. Boil the little sausages in the soup for 24 minutes.

  8. If the soup is too thin, melt some butter in a saucepan.

  9. Stir in the flour.

  10. Add part of the soup to thicken it.

  11. Return the thickened mixture to the pot.

  12. Stir well.

Finish and serve

  1. Cut stale bread into dice.

  2. Brown the croutons in hot butter or fat until golden, but not burnt.

  3. Serve the soup with croutons.

  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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

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

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

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

  4. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

  5. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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 simmering to give the soup its body and thickness.
Celery root
Adds savory, aromatic flavor to the soup base as it simmers.
Potatoes
Break down during cooking and help thicken the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup when cooked in butter and blended in.
Beef
Contributes rich meaty flavor to the soup as it cooks.

The step that matters

Pressing the mixture through a colander. Pushing the cooked vegetables and peas through forces the solids into a smooth purée, which gives the soup its texture. Skipping or rushing this leaves the soup grainy.

Swap the peas

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

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

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