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Peas Soup

A hearty soup made with split peas, vegetables, and broth, simmered until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Peas Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the soup

  1. In a large pot, bring the meat broth to a boil.

  2. Add the split peas (or whole peas) to the broth.

  3. Boil for 2 to 3 hours.

  4. Alternatively, add pea flour mixed with a little cold broth and boil for 45 minutes.

Add the vegetables and herbs

  1. Add the chopped celery, onion, carrot, and turnip to the broth.

  2. Cook for about 1 hour.

  3. Add the chopped parsley and mint.

  4. Cook for an additional 20 minutes.

Season and serve

  1. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  2. For a smooth soup, strain through a colander before serving.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

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 thicken the broth and give the soup its body.
Meat broth
Provides the liquid base and most of the savory flavor of the soup.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth as it softens into the broth.
Carrot
Contributes natural sweetness and color while softening during the long simmer.
Turnip
Adds mild earthy flavor and body as it cooks down into the soup.

The step that matters

Boil the peas long enough to fully soften. Split peas need prolonged simmering to break down and release starch, which thickens the soup. Stopping early leaves the peas firm and the texture grainy and thin.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, peas, celery, onion, carrot, turnip, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, peas, celery, onion, carrot, turnip, parsley. 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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