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Puree of Split Peas

A puree made from soaked split peas, carrot, turnip, onion, and salt, boiled and mashed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Puree of Split Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Soak and cook

  1. Soak the split peas in cold water overnight and drain.

  2. Put the peas in a saucepan with the carrot, turnip, onion, and salt.

  3. Cover with cold water and boil until done.

Mash and serve

  1. Drain the mixture and mash it through a colander.

  2. Return the mashed peas to the fire and heat before serving.

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 + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

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

  5. Peas + turniptop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,350 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Split peas
Form the bulk of the puree, and their starch thickens to a smooth, body-rich texture when cooked soft.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and a mild earthy aroma that rounds out the peas.
Onion
Contributes savory aroma and depth as it softens and flavors the cooking water.

The step that matters

Boil until done. The peas must be fully softened, because their starch only breaks down into a smooth puree when cooked through. Underdone peas mash grainy and pasty.

Swap the peas

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, onion. 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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