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A Cheap Green Peas Soup

A soup made from green peas, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, herbs, and butter, simmered and served with fried sippets.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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A Cheap Green Peas Soup

Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

A Cheap Green Peas Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pea stock

  1. Wash the pea shells thoroughly and add them to boiling salted water.

  2. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes until tender, then strain and press the pods with a wooden spoon.

  3. Measure the liquid and pour 2 quarts into a clean deep saucepan.

Make the soup

  1. Bring the liquid to a boil.

  2. Add 1 quart of green peas, 2 or 3 peeled and quartered cucumbers, and 3 chopped lettuces.

  3. Slice the onion thinly and sauté the sliced onion in a little butter until soft.

  4. Add the sautéed onion to the soup.

  5. Add parsley and mint leaves.

  6. Simmer gently for 1 hour.

  7. Season with salt and white pepper or cayenne to taste.

Finish and serve

  1. Pass the soup through a fine sieve.

  2. Reheat the soup.

  3. Serve with small fried sippets.

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. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

  2. Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Cucumber + minttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together884 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pea shells
Boiled to make a flavourful liquid that forms the soup's base.
Green peas
Add body and sweet, vegetal flavour to the finished soup.
Cucumbers
Contribute a light, fresh flavour and soft texture when simmered.
Lettuces
Soften during simmering, adding body and a mild, sweet vegetable note.
Onion
Softened in butter first, building a savoury sweet base for the soup.

The step that matters

Passing the soup through a fine sieve. Straining removes fibrous pea and lettuce pieces, so the soup becomes smooth rather than grainy or stringy.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, cucumber, lettuce, onion, parsley, mint, butter):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, cucumber, lettuce, onion, parsley, mint, 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.

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