Name: Old Peas Soup
Ingredients: water from boiled pork or beef; fresh water (if needed); roast beef bones; ham or gammon bone; anchovies (optional); whole or split peas

Why it works: Pork and beef match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

Old Peas Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Save the water from boiled pork or beef. If it's too salty, add fresh water.
Simmer the water with roast beef bones, a ham or gammon bone, or one or two anchovies.
Add whole or split peas and use as little water as possible.
Simmer until the peas can be pushed through a colander.

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.

Pork + beeftop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,690 recipes

Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
Pork + hamtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,638 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Pork + peastop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,589 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + peastop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,044 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + hamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,729 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).