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Pease Soup

A split pea soup with turnips, carrot, celery, leeks, herbs, onions, peppercorns, catsup, and salt, served with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Pease Soup

Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Pease Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Soak the split peas in soft water overnight.

  2. Combine the soaked peas and 4 quarts of water in a pan.

  3. Boil gently until the peas dissolve.

  4. Strain the soup through a sieve back into the pan.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the turnips, carrot, celery, leeks, thyme, marjoram, onions, and peppercorns.

  2. Stew until tender.

  3. Strain again.

  4. Add catsup and salt to taste.

  5. Serve with fried or toasted bread cut into small pieces.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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 boiling to thicken the soup into a smooth body.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and soft texture as they stew.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and color while softening during stewing.
Onions
Build savory depth and aroma as they cook down into the broth.
Leeks
Contribute a mild onion flavor and aroma to the stewed soup.

The step that matters

Boil gently until the peas dissolve. Vigorous boiling can scorch the peas on the bottom of the pan and cause uneven texture. A gentle simmer lets the starch release slowly so the peas break down evenly and the soup thickens smoothly.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turnip, carrot, celery, leek, thyme, marjoram, onion):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, carrot, celery, leek, thyme, marjoram, onion. 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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