Why it works: Peas and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,434 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Peas Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the peas
Soak the white peas in cold water for some time.
Put the peas in a pan with enough water to cover them and boil thoroughly.
Pass the boiled peas through a fine sieve.
Make the soup
Add the sieved peas to some good stock.
Boil a few spoonfuls of rice until tender and add to the soup.
Stir in the beaten egg yolks, heating gently without boiling to avoid curdling.
Serve
Serve with fried bread.
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.
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Peas + ricetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,434 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Peas + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together804 recipes
Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).
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Rice + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Peas + eggtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,065 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- White peas
- Break down when boiled and sieved to give the soup its body and thickness.
- Rice
- Cooked until tender and added to the soup, adding body and substance.
- Egg yolks
- Stirred in at the end to enrich the soup and give it a smoother, creamier texture.
The step that matters
Stirring in the beaten egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken when heated but curdle if the soup boils, so the soup must be heated gently and kept below boiling once the yolks go in.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, egg, bread):
- Peasthe original
- Beansfits about as well
- Peanutfits about as well
- Almondfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, egg, bread. 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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