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Peas Soup

A hearty soup made from split peas, vegetables, and optional thickeners, simmered for hours and served with bread and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Peas Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the peas and soak them overnight in the stock.

  2. Boil the peas with a bit of dripping or fat.

  3. Fry the vegetables in a little more fat.

  4. Add the fried vegetables to the boiling liquid.

Make the soup

  1. Skim well and cook for about three hours until the soup can be passed through a sieve.

  2. Return the soup to the pan.

  3. Add the grated carrot and any desired thickening.

  4. Boil for another half hour.

  5. Season to taste.

Serve

  1. Serve with dried mint or sage and fried or toasted bread.

  2. Add a teaspoon of curry powder per quart for extra flavor if desired.

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. Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  3. Peas + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,994 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Pepper + minttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,372 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Peas + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

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 simmering to give the soup its body and thickness.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor of the whole soup.
Dripping or fat
Carries flavor and helps the vegetables brown when fried.
Vegetables
Add savory flavor and body once fried and passed through the sieve.
Carrot
Adds mild sweetness and color to the soup.
Sago
Thickens the soup as its starch swells during boiling.

The step that matters

Cook the soup until the peas can be passed through a sieve. Split peas must soften fully before they break down. If the soup is cooked too briefly, the peas stay grainy and the purée will not be smooth.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, pepper, mint, bread):

  1. Tomatofits about as well
  2. Cucumberfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, pepper, mint, bread. 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.

More pea soup recipes

Green 380Split 228Baked Split 20Creamed 13Dried 10Winter 9 See all 368 →

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