Skip to main content
Main

Pea Soup

A hearty soup made with peas, stock, onion, carrot, bread crust, and seasoned with salt, served with croutons.

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

Why it works: Onion and carrot 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

Make the soup

  1. Boil soaked peas in stock with onion, carrot, and bread crust.

  2. If using weak stock, add bacon or ham bone for flavor.

  3. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently to prevent sticking.

  4. Simmer gently for 2-3 hours until peas are tender.

  5. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

Make the croutons and serve

  1. For croutons, cut bread into small dice-sized squares.

  2. Fry croutons in butter or dripping until pale golden.

  3. Drain on paper to remove excess fat.

  4. Reheat the soup and serve with croutons.

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. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Peas (in the method)
Break down into a thick, smooth body as they cook and soften.
Stock
Provides the liquid base and most of the savory flavor of the soup.
Bacon or ham bone
Adds smoky, salty depth to weak stock.
Onion
Builds a savory aromatic base as it softens in the liquid.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and body to the soup.

The step that matters

Stirring while the soup comes to a boil. Peas and starches settle and scorch on the bottom of the pot, which can make the soup taste burnt. Frequent stirring keeps solids suspended and prevents sticking during the early heating stage.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, onion, bread, butter):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, onion, bread, butter. 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.

More pea soup recipes

Green 380Split 228Baked Split 20Creamed 13Dried 10Winter 9 See all 368 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipes