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Pea Soup

A hearty soup made with split peas, ham or bacon, onions, celery, carrot, pork broth, seasoned with salt, pepper, vinegar, and butter.

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

Why it works: Celery and carrot 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 ↓

Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the split peas overnight.

  2. Wash and drain the peas, then place them in a saucepan with the ham, onions, celery, and carrot.

Cook and strain

  1. Add the pork broth or stock and simmer gently until the peas are soft and mashed.

  2. Strain through a sieve and return to the saucepan.

Finish and serve

  1. Season with salt, pepper, vinegar, and stir in the butter.

  2. Serve with dried mint on the side.

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. Celery + carrottop 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. Onion + carrottop 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
Form the body of the soup as they soften and break down into a thick purée.
Ham or bacon
Adds savoury, smoky flavour to the broth as it simmers with the peas.
Onions
Build a sweet, aromatic base that deepens the soup's flavour.
Pork broth or stock
Provides the liquid that cooks the peas and carries the flavour through the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the peas are soft and mashed. Vigorous boiling can scorch the bottom of the pan and break up unevenly, while gentle simmering lets the peas soften fully so the soup strains smoothly.

Swap the peas

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, onion, celery, carrot, pork, pepper, vinegar. 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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