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English Pea Soup

A hearty soup made with beef, veal, ham bones, split peas, celery, carrots, and dried mint.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot 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 ↓

English Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a large pot, combine the beef, beef bones, ham bones, and veal knuckle with 1 gallon of water and a little salt.

  2. Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum that rises, then reduce heat and simmer slowly for 2 hours.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the soaked split peas, celery, and carrots to the pot.

  2. Sift in a little dried mint and season to taste.

  3. Cook slowly for 4 hours, stirring often with a wooden spoon.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  3. Peas + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,994 recipes

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

  4. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

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

  5. Celery + minttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together334 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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 soup and give it body.
Beef bones
Release gelatin and flavor into the water, giving the stock richness and body.
Ham bones
Add smoky, salty depth to the stock as they simmer.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and color to the soup as they soften.
Root celery
Adds savory, earthy aroma that rounds out the stock.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum at the boil. Impurities that rise during the first boil can cloud the broth and add off flavors if left in. Removing them early keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, ham, veal, peas, celery, carrot):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, veal, peas, celery, carrot. 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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