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Peas Soup

A soup of peas, giblets, onion, and ketchup, thickened with flour and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Peas Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the giblets

  1. Clean and cut the stewed giblets as directed.

  2. Place giblets in a stewpan with a little water.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Skim the surface.

  5. Add sliced onion, pepper, and salt.

  6. Cover and simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours.

Cook the peas

  1. Boil the peas until tender.

  2. Remove the peas and cut them into small pieces.

  3. Strain the cooking liquid.

Make the soup

  1. Return the giblets to the pot.

  2. Thicken the soup with kneaded flour and butter.

  3. Add ketchup.

  4. Season with pepper and salt.

  5. Serve in a tureen with giblet pieces.

  6. Serve in a hash dish with bits of toasted bread.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Peas + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Peas
Provide the main body and earthy flavor of the soup once cooked and puréed or chopped.
Kneaded flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, body-rich soup as the starch gelatinises.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the thickened soup.
Giblets
Simmered for hours to release meaty flavor into the broth, then served as pieces.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the simmering broth.

The step that matters

Thicken with kneaded flour and butter. Flour must be cooked in the hot liquid long enough to swell its starch and lose its raw taste. Adding it to a boiling soup and whisking well prevents lumps and gives an even, smooth thickness.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, pepper, liver, onion, ketchup, bread):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, pepper, liver, onion, ketchup, bread. 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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