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Pease Soup, Maigre

A thick pea soup with vegetables, anchovies or herring, seasoned with thyme, marjoram, catsup, and served with fried bread squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Pease Soup, Maigre

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Boil the split peas in water until completely dissolved.

  2. Strain the peas through a sieve and return them to the pot.

  3. Add the chopped carrots, turnips, celery, leeks, thyme, marjoram, onion, anchovies or herring, and peppercorns.

  4. Simmer until the vegetables are tender.

Thicken and serve

  1. Roll the butter in flour and add to the soup, stirring until thickened.

  2. Season with catsup and salt to taste.

  3. Serve with fried bread squares.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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 boiling to give the soup its body and thick texture.
Butter and flour
Flour rolled in butter thickens the soup and adds richness.
Anchovies
Add a salty, savoury depth that rounds out the soup's flavour.

The step that matters

Rolling the butter in flour before adding it to the soup. Flour added directly to hot liquid clumps; coating it in butter first helps it disperse so the soup thickens smoothly rather than lumpy.

Swap the peas

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, celery, leek, thyme, marjoram, 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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