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Soup

Green-Pease Soup

A soup made with lean ham, potatoes, green peas, and optional toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,536 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Green-Pease Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Simmer the ham and mashed potatoes in water for 2 hours, skimming off any fat.

  2. Ensure the vegetables do not stick to the bottom.

  3. Add the boiled green peas and their cooking liquid.

  4. Remove the ham bone before serving.

  5. Optionally, add small diced fried or 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Potato + peastop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,016 recipes

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

  3. Peas + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

  4. Potato + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together434 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Ham + peastop 18% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together402 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mealy potatoes
Break down when simmered and mashed, thickening the soup and giving it body.
Green peas
Provide the main flavour and colour, and add body to the soup when blended into the liquid.
Lean ham
Flavours the simmering water, adding savoury depth to the soup.

The step that matters

Keep the vegetables from sticking to the bottom. Starches in potatoes and peas settle and scorch easily on the pot base during a long simmer. Scorching gives a burnt taste that spreads through the whole soup, so stir and keep the heat gentle.

Flavor stand-ins for the potato

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

  1. Asparagusbetter flavor fit
  2. Shallotbetter flavor fit
  3. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, peas, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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