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Lettuce and Whole-pea Soup

A soup of blanched cabbage lettuces, whole peas, and consommé, finished with duchess crusts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 622 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lettuce and Whole-pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lettuces

  1. Pick, wash, and blanch the lettuces.

  2. Cut them open and season with pepper and salt.

  3. Pair them face to face and tie with twine.

Braise

  1. Cover the bottom of a stewpan with bacon.

  2. Place the lettuces in the stewpan and pour broth over them.

  3. Cover with buttered paper and lid, boil, then simmer for about 1 hour.

  4. Drain the lettuces, untie, and cut into 1-inch lengths.

Assemble and serve

  1. In a soup tureen, combine the lettuces, peas, and a pinch of pepper.

  2. Remove fat from the broth and add it to the tureen.

  3. Pour in the consommé and add a handful of duchess crusts before serving.

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. Cabbage + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together622 recipes

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

  2. Lettuce + peastop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  4. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + peastop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together392 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

White-heart cabbage lettuces
Form the soup's main body, becoming tender and sweet as they braise slowly.
Fat bacon
Adds savoury richness and aroma to the braising liquid and the finished soup.
Young green peas
Add sweetness and a fresh, tender bite to the soup.
Bright strong consommé
Provides a clear, concentrated broth that forms the body of the soup.

The step that matters

Simmering the lettuces gently. A hard boil can toughen and break down the lettuce leaves, so a gentle simmer keeps them tender while the long cooking softens the fibres and mellows their flavour.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, lettuce, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, lettuce, 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.

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