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Rich Peas Soup

A thick soup made from soaked yellow split peas, brown gravy stock, and sautéed onions, carrots, turnips, celery, and optional curry powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Rich Peas Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the soup

  1. Drain the soaked peas and place them in a large soup pot with the gravy stock.

  2. Boil gently for 30 minutes.

  3. In a separate pan, fry the onions, carrots, and turnips in butter until browned.

  4. Add the fried vegetables to the soup and simmer until the peas are reduced to pulp.

  5. Season with salt and cayenne.

  6. Boil for 2-3 minutes.

Strain and finish

  1. Pass the soup through a sieve, pressing the vegetables through.

  2. Return the strained soup to a clean saucepan.

  3. Add fresh stock if too thick.

  4. Boil quickly to reduce if too thin.

  5. Add the sliced celery and cook until tender.

  6. Mix curry powder with a few spoons of soup and add when the soup begins to boil.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately with small fried sippets.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Yellow split peas
Break down into pulp during simmering, giving the soup its body and thickness.
Gravy stock
Provides the liquid base and savory flavor for the whole soup.
Onions
Browned in butter first, adding sweetness and depth of flavor.
Carrots
Browned in butter and pressed through, adding sweetness and body.
Turnips
Browned in butter and pressed through, adding body and mild sweetness.
Celery
Cooked until tender, adding aroma and a fresh vegetal flavor.

The step that matters

Pressing the vegetables through the sieve. Pushing the cooked peas and vegetables through the sieve breaks down their fibres and starches into a smooth purée. Skipping or rushing this leaves the soup grainy and uneven in texture.

Swap the peas

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, turnip, butter, pepper, celery. 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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