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Pea Soup

A green pea soup with cucumbers, lettuce, onions, parsley, mint, butter, and spices, simmered until the butter rises.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Pea 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 ↓

Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine cucumbers, lettuce, onions, parsley, and mint (if using) in a pot.

  2. Cook over low heat for nearly an hour, stirring occasionally.

  3. Add salt and a good seasoning of white pepper or cayenne.

Finish the soup

  1. Drain the mixture from the butter and add it to the strained stock.

  2. Bring to a gentle boil until the butter rises to the surface.

  3. Add the young peas and serve immediately.

Variations

  1. For a smoother soup, rub the peas through a sieve instead of crushing them.

  2. If flavor is more important than color, stew the peas in butter until tender.

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

Green peas
Provide the main body and sweet, starchy flavor of the soup.
Cucumbers
Add moisture and a cool, fresh flavor to the soup.
Hearts of lettuce
Add soft body and a mild, fresh flavor.
Onions
Add aromatic flavor that softens and sweetens during slow cooking.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel from its fat.

The step that matters

Add the young peas and serve immediately. Prolonged heat breaks down the green chlorophyll in peas, turning them dull olive. Adding them late and serving at once keeps the soup bright green and the peas tender.

Swap the mint

The recipe marks mint as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, cucumber, lettuce, onion, parsley, butter, white pepper):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Mintthe original

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