Skip to main content
Main

Plain Pease Soup

A hearty soup made from split peas, celery, broth, and seasonings, served with fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Peas and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Plain Pease Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Combine split peas, celery, and broth or water in a large pot.

  2. Simmer gently over low heat for 3 hours, stirring every 15 minutes to prevent burning.

  3. If the soup thickens too much, add boiling water as needed.

  4. Once softened, strain the soup through a coarse sieve, then through a fine sieve.

  5. Return the strained soup to the pot and bring to a boil, skimming off any scum.

Serve

  1. Serve with fried bread and sprinkle with dried mint.

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

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

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + minttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,372 recipes

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

  4. Celery + minttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together334 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

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 long simmering to thicken the soup and give it body.
Celery
Adds savory, aromatic flavor as it softens into the broth.
Broth or soft water
Forms the liquid base that carries the peas and celery as they cook.

The step that matters

Simmering gently while stirring. Split peas settle and scorch on the bottom of the pot if left alone or cooked too hot. Gentle heat and regular stirring keep them from burning and help them soften evenly.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, pepper, mint, sugar, bread):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, pepper, mint, sugar, 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.

More pease soup recipes

with Pickled Pork 3 See all 8 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesGreen PeasGreen Peas229 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipes