Why it works: Mint and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,372 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Quickly- Made Pea Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the base
Peel and slice the onions, then fry them in a saucepan with the bacon until brown.
Pour in 3 pints of water and bring to a boil.
Thicken and season
Blend the pea flour with the remaining water and stir it into the saucepan when the water boils.
Boil for a few minutes, then add the salt, pepper, and mint, rubbing the mint through your hands to powder it.
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.
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Mint + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,372 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Onion + minttop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,389 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pea flour
- Thickens the soup and gives it a smooth, hearty body as it cooks.
- Bacon
- Releases fat and adds savoury, smoky flavour to the base.
- Onions
- Browning in the bacon fat builds sweetness and depth of flavour.
- Dried mint
- Adds a fresh, aromatic herbal note to the finished soup.
The step that matters
Blending the pea flour with water before stirring it in. Pea flour clumps easily when dropped into hot liquid dry. Mixing it into a smooth slurry first lets the starch disperse evenly, so it thickens the soup without lumps.
Swap the mint
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, onion, pepper):
- Turmericfits better
- Garlicfits better
- Jalapenofits better
- Mintthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, onion, 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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