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Pease Soup

A hearty soup made from split peas, vegetables, and seasonings, served with fried or 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. In a pan, combine the soaked peas and 4 quarts of water; boil gently until the peas are tender.

  3. Pulp the peas through a sieve and return the soup to the pan.

Finish the soup

  1. Add turnips, carrot, celery, leeks, thyme, marjoram, onions, and peppercorns; stew until tender.

  2. Strain the soup, then add catsup and salt to taste.

Serve

  1. Serve with fried or toasted bread cut into small squares.

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 when boiled and pulped, thickening the soup into a smooth body.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and body as they soften during stewing.
Onions
Contribute savory depth and sweetness as they cook down in the broth.
Carrot
Adds gentle sweetness and color to the stewed soup.

The step that matters

Pulping the peas through a sieve. Peas must be fully tender before pulping; undercooked peas will not break down, leaving a grainy rather than smooth soup.

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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