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Puree of Green Peas Soup

A smooth soup made from green peas, onion, butter, and vegetable broth, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Puree of Green Peas Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped onion and sauté until translucent.

  3. Stir in the green peas and vegetable broth.

  4. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

  5. Blend the mixture until smooth, then season with salt and pepper.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, drizzled with cream if desired.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Green peas
Provide the main body, sweet flavour and bright green colour of the soup.
Vegetable broth
Supplies the liquid that cooks the peas and sets the soup's thin, pourable consistency.
Onion
Adds savoury depth as it softens and turns translucent in the butter.
Butter
Carries the onion's flavour and adds richness to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after the boil. Once the peas are boiling, a gentle simmer cooks them through without overcooking, which can dull their green colour and flavour. Blending while the peas are very hot and tender gives the smoothest texture.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Almondfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, pepper, cream. 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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