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A Cheap Green Peas Soup

A soup made from green peas, cucumbers, lettuce, onion, herbs, and broth from pea shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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A Cheap Green Peas Soup

Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

A Cheap Green Peas Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pea stock

  1. Wash the pea shells thoroughly and add them to boiling salted water.

  2. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes until tender.

  3. Strain the shells and press the pods to extract the liquid.

  4. Measure the liquid and pour 2 quarts into a clean saucepan.

Make the soup

  1. Bring the liquid to a boil.

  2. Add 1 quart of full-sized green peas, 2 or 3 peeled and quartered cucumbers, and 3 chopped lettuces.

  3. Slice the onion thinly.

  4. Sauté the sliced onion in a little butter until soft, then add it to the soup.

  5. Add parsley and mint leaves.

  6. Simmer gently for 1 hour.

  7. Season with salt and pepper or cayenne to taste.

Finish and serve

  1. Press the soup through a fine sieve.

  2. Reheat the soup.

  3. Serve with small fried bread sippets.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

  2. Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Cucumber + minttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together884 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pea shells
Boiled to make the flavourful liquid that forms the base of the soup.
Green peas
Add body and sweet, vegetal flavour to the soup once pureed.
Cucumbers
Contribute fresh, mild flavour and moisture to the soup.
Lettuces
Add soft texture and a gentle vegetal flavour, thickening the soup as it cooks.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma when softened in butter first.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 1 hour. A gentle simmer keeps the peas, lettuce and cucumber tender and bright green, while a hard boil can dull colour and cook off freshness. Gentle heat also lets the flavours blend evenly.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, cucumber, lettuce, onion, parsley, mint, butter):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, cucumber, lettuce, onion, parsley, mint, butter. 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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