Name: Green Pea Soup, No. 2
Ingredients: 1 quart shelled peas (or 1 peck unshelled peas); 2 tablespoons fat bacon (or butter); 1 tablespoon chopped parsley; Water (enough to cover the peas); Veal broth (or milk for a maigre soup); Spinach leaves or spinach juice (for color); Salt and pepper to taste; Croutons (optional, if no young peas)

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Green Pea Soup, No. 2

Ingredients

1 quart shelled peas (or 1 peck unshelled peas)
2 tablespoons fat bacon (or butter)
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Water (enough to cover the peas)
Veal broth (or milk for a maigre soup)
Spinach leaves or spinach juice (for color)
Salt and pepper to taste
Croutons (optional, if no young peas)

Directions

Prepare the peas

Separate old peas from young peas, reserving young peas to use whole in the soup.
Boil the large peas, then drain and dry them.

Make the soup

In a stewpan, combine the large peas, bacon (or butter), parsley, and enough water to cover.
Simmer until the peas are tender, then rub through a sieve or pound in a mortar.
Dilute the pea paste with veal broth or milk, adding spinach for color.
Pass the mixture through a tamis, then add the tender young peas and warm gently.

Serve

Serve hot, optionally with small croutons.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + spinachtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,025 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Spinach + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,400 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Peas + spinachtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together550 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Peas + parsleytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,885 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Peas: Form the body of the soup and, once puréed, give it its thick texture.
Bacon or butter: Adds fat, which carries flavor and gives the soup a richer mouthfeel.
Veal broth or milk: Thins the pea paste to a soup consistency and adds savory or creamy body.
Spinach: Supplies green color to the soup.

The step that matters

Pass the mixture through a tamis before adding the young peas. Straining makes the purée smooth and fine, while the whole young peas added afterward keep their shape and bright texture. Adding them before straining would break them up and lose that contrast.

Swap the peas

The recipe marks peas as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parsley, veal, spinach, pepper):

Chickpeafits better
Lentilsfits better
Beansfits better
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, veal, spinach, pepper. 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.