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Plain Pea Soup

A hearty soup made from split peas, pork stock, and vegetables, simmered and served with fried bread slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Plain Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the split peas in cold water for 12 hours.

Make the soup

  1. Put the soaked peas in a saucepan with the stock and chopped vegetables.

  2. Boil for 2 hours.

  3. Strain through a fine sieve.

  4. Return the pulp to the saucepan.

  5. Add grated carrot, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  6. Simmer for another 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve with fried bread slices.

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

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Split peas
Break down during long boiling to thicken the soup and give it body.
Pork or tongue stock
Provides the liquid base and savory flavor for the soup.
Prepared pea powder
Adds concentrated pea flavor and helps thicken the soup.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and earthy flavor as it softens into the pulp.

The step that matters

Straining through a fine sieve. Pressing the cooked peas through a fine sieve separates the pulp from fibrous skins, giving the soup its smooth texture. Skipping or rushing this leaves the soup grainy.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Black-eyed peafits better
  3. Sesamefits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, carrot, onion, celery, 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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Green 380Split 228Baked Split 20Creamed 13Dried 10Winter 9 See all 368 →

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