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Lettuce and Whole-pea Soup

A soup made with blanched lettuce, peas, bacon, and fowl consommé.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 622 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lettuce and Whole-pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lettuces

  1. Pick, wash, and blanch the lettuces; cut them open and spread on a clean napkin.

  2. Season with mignonette pepper and coarse sea salt; tie two lettuces together with twine.

  3. Cover the bottom of a stewpan with bacon, place the lettuces on top, and pour broth over them.

  4. Cover with buttered paper and a lid, bring to a boil, then simmer gently for about 1 hour.

Assemble and serve

  1. Drain the lettuces, untie them, and cut into 1-inch lengths.

  2. In a soup tureen, combine the lettuces, boiled peas, and a pinch of mignonette pepper.

  3. Remove fat from the broth and add it to the tureen, then pour in the consommé.

  4. Taste for seasoning and add a handful of duchess' crusts before serving.

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. Cabbage + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together622 recipes

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

  2. Lettuce + peastop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  4. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + peastop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together392 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

White-heart cabbage lettuces
Provide the main body of the soup, becoming tender and mild after blanching and slow simmering.
Thin layers of fat bacon
Add savory fat and flavor to the stewing lettuces and the broth that the lettuces absorb.
Young green peas
Add sweetness and a fresh, tender texture to the finished soup.
Consomme of fowl
Forms the clear, flavorful liquid base that carries the lettuces and peas.

The step that matters

Simmering the lettuces gently. A gentle simmer keeps the lettuces tender and intact, while a hard boil can break them apart and leave the broth cloudy.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, lettuce, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, lettuce, pepper. 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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