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Peas Soup

A hearty soup made from split peas, broth, vegetables, herbs, and anchovy essence, served with toasted bread and powdered mint.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Peas Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the split peas in cold water.

  2. Combine peas with broth or water, carrot, celery, onions, thyme, marjoram, black pepper, and cayenne in a saucepan.

Make the soup

  1. Simmer gently for about 3 hours, stirring frequently until peas are soft.

  2. Strain and press the mixture through a coarse sieve.

  3. If not using pickled pork or bacon, mix in essence of anchovy, dripping or butter, and a little salt.

  4. Simmer for another hour, stirring well.

Serve

  1. Serve in a soup tureen with toasted bread and powdered mint on the side.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Lemon + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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.
Broth
Provides the liquid base and savoury flavour in which the peas soften.
Onions
Release sweetness and aromatic flavour as they cook into the base.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savoury depth to the soup base as it simmers.
Dripping or butter
Adds fat that carries flavour and gives a richer, rounder mouthfeel.
Essence of anchovy
Adds concentrated savoury depth that rounds out the soup's flavour.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the peas are soft. Split peas must cook long enough to fully soften and break down, which thickens the soup. A vigorous boil can scorch the bottom and cloud the texture, so frequent stirring helps prevent sticking.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, carrot, celery, onion, lemon, thyme, marjoram):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, carrot, celery, onion, lemon, thyme, marjoram. 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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