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Hessian Soup

A hearty beef and split pea soup with vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Hessian Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. In a stewpan, add the sliced beef.

  2. Gradually pour in the water.

  3. Add the split peas, onions, carrots, potatoes, celery, whole pepper, and salt.

  4. Stew the mixture until half the liquid has boiled away.

Serve

  1. Strain through a fine sieve for a smooth soup, or serve with the meat and vegetables for a hearty dish.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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 stewing to thicken the soup and give it body.
Shin of beef
Releases flavour and gelatin into the broth as it simmers, adding richness.
Potatoes
Soften and break down slightly, adding starch that thickens the broth.

The step that matters

Stew until half the liquid has boiled away. Reducing the liquid concentrates the flavour of the beef and vegetables and thickens the soup. Stopping too early leaves it thin and watery, while boiling too hard can break up the ingredients unevenly.

Swap the peas

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, carrot, potato, 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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