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Green Peas Soup, Without Meat

A soup made from boiled peas, blended with cooking liquid, and finished with butter, cucumbers, lettuce, and onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Green Peas Soup, Without Meat

Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Green Peas Soup, Without Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pea base

  1. Boil the peas in 3 quarts of water with salt and baking soda until tender.

  2. Drain the peas and pound them in a mortar.

  3. Gradually mix in 5 pints of the cooking liquid.

  4. Return the mixture to the heat and simmer gently for 15 minutes.

  5. Press the soup through a fine sieve.

Cook the vegetables

  1. In a separate pan, melt the butter and simmer the cucumbers, lettuces, and onions until tender.

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. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

  2. Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

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

  3. Peas + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

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

  4. Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

  5. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Large full grown peas
Form the main body of the soup and give it its green color and thick texture.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor when the vegetables are simmered in it.
Cucumbers
Contribute moisture and a mild, fresh flavor as they soften.
Lettuces
Soften into the soup, adding body and a delicate vegetable flavor.
Onions
Add aromatic savory depth as they cook down in the butter.

The step that matters

Press the soup through a fine sieve. Pounded peas stay grainy unless forced through a fine sieve, which breaks down the remaining skins and fibers. Skipping or rushing this leaves the soup coarse rather than smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, butter, cucumber, lettuce):

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Cauliflowerfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, butter, cucumber, lettuce. 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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