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Soup of Pea

A pea soup made with dried peas, rice, eggs, oil, vinegar, gherkins, capers, parsley, shallots, mustard, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Capers and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 405 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Soup of Pea

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Soak the peas in clean cold water.

  2. Boil the peas in a pan until soft.

  3. Strain the peas through a fine sieve.

  4. Combine the strained peas with strong broth.

  5. Add the cooked rice to the mixture.

  6. In a bowl, beat the egg yolk and raw eggs together.

  7. Heat the soup gently, but do not boil it to avoid curdling.

  8. Taste the soup and adjust seasoning as needed.

Make the Sauce Tartare

  1. To make Sauce Tartare, blend the hard-boiled egg yolk with the raw eggs, salt, and pepper.

  2. Slowly add the oil while stirring continuously.

  3. Alternate adding vinegar while stirring until well combined.

  4. Mix in the chopped gherkins, capers, parsley, shallots, mustard, and cayenne pepper.

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. Capers + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together405 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Capers + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together624 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Shallot + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together859 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Capers + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,550 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Dried peas
Cooked and strained, they form the thick body of the soup.
Cooked rice
Adds starch and body, helping the soup thicken and feel smooth.
Eggs
Yolks emulsify the oil into the sauce and add richness and body.
Oil
Forms the fat base of the sauce, giving it richness and a smooth texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the oil.

The step that matters

Heat the soup gently without boiling. Egg mixtures curdle when overheated, so the soup can turn grainy. Gentle heat keeps the eggs smooth and evenly blended into the soup.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, egg, vinegar, capers, parsley, shallot, mustard):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Black-eyed peafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, egg, vinegar, capers, parsley, shallot, mustard. 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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