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Pease-porridge

A hearty split‑pea porridge with onions, celery, herbs, anchovies, bread, potatoes, leeks, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pease-porridge

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Fry onions and celery in a pot.

  2. Add sweet herbs, anchovies or herring, water, bread, pepper, and salt.

  3. Boil gently until the flavor is extracted from the herbs.

  4. Skim the liquid and strain it.

Cook and finish the porridge

  1. Add grated potatoes and split peas.

  2. When the peas are soft, rub them through a sieve with the soup.

  3. If the porridge is not thick enough, add a little flour and butter.

  4. Cut leeks into pieces, boil them in the soup, and serve.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Celery + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Potato + leektop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30 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

Split peas
Break down when simmered to thicken the soup and give it body.
Potatoes
Starch that thickens the soup and adds body as they cook.
Flour
Thickens the porridge further when added with butter.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the thickened porridge.
Leeks
Add mild onion flavor and soft texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Rub the peas through a sieve. Split peas must be fully soft before straining, or the purée will be grainy and thin. Pressing them through with the soup breaks down the starch and fibres so the porridge becomes smooth and thick.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, celery, bread, pepper, potato, leek, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, celery, bread, pepper, potato, leek, flour. 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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