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Rich Peas Soup

A hearty soup made from split peas, brown gravy stock, vegetables, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Rich Peas Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Drain the soaked peas and place them in a large soup pot with the brown gravy stock.

  2. Boil gently for 30 minutes.

Make the soup

  1. In a pan, fry the sliced onions, carrots, and turnips in butter until browned.

  2. Add the fried vegetables to the soup and stew until the peas are reduced to pulp.

  3. Season with salt and cayenne pepper, then boil for 2-3 minutes.

  4. Pass the soup through a sieve, pressing the vegetables to extract flavor.

  5. In a clean saucepan, add the strained soup and adjust thickness with fresh stock if needed.

  6. Boil quickly to reduce if the soup is too thin.

  7. Add the sliced celery and cook until tender.

  8. For added flavor, mix curry powder with a few spoons of soup and add it when the soup begins to boil.

Serve

  1. Serve the soup hot with small fried or toasted 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.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Yellow split peas
Break down into pulp to give the soup its body and thickness.
Brown gravy stock
Provides the liquid base and savory depth for the soup.
Onions
Browning in butter builds sweet, savory flavor that carries into the soup.
Carrots
Add sweetness and color, and help thicken the puree when sieved.
Turnips
Contribute mild earthy flavor and body to the pureed soup.
Celery
Adds a fresh, aromatic vegetable note to the soup.

The step that matters

Pass the soup through a sieve, pressing the vegetables. Pressing forces the softened vegetables and peas through the mesh, which creates a smooth, thick texture. Skipping or rushing this step leaves the soup grainy and thin.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, carrot, turnip, butter, pepper, celery):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, turnip, butter, pepper, celery. 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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