Skip to main content
Main

Peas Soup

A hearty soup made from split peas, vegetables, and seasonings, served with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 the peas

  1. Soak the split peas in soft water overnight.

  2. Combine the soaked peas and 4 quarts of water in a pan.

  3. Boil gently until tender.

  4. Pulp the peas through a sieve.

  5. Return the soup to the pan.

Make the soup

  1. Add sliced turnips, carrot, celery, leeks, thyme, marjoram, onions, and peppercorns.

  2. Stew until tender.

  3. Strain the soup.

  4. Add catsup and salt to taste.

Serve

  1. Serve with fried or toasted bread cut into small squares.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  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 into a thick purée that gives the soup its body.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and soften during stewing to flavour the broth.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and colour while softening into the soup.
Onions
Build savoury depth as they soften and sweeten in the broth.
Leeks
Contribute a mild onion flavour and aroma to the stock.

The step that matters

Pulp the peas through a sieve. The peas must be fully tender before pulping, otherwise the purée stays grainy and the soup lacks its smooth, thick body. Pressing them through a sieve removes skins and any remaining lumps.

Swap the peas

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, carrot, celery, leek, thyme, marjoram, onion. 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 split pea soup recipes

Baked 20Yellow 4 See all 228 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesGreen PeasGreen Peas229 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipes