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Rich Peas Soup

A hearty soup made from split peas, brown gravy stock, onions, carrots, turnips, celery, and optional curry powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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

  1. Soak the split peas overnight and drain them well.

Make the soup

  1. In a large soup pot, combine the peas and brown gravy stock, and boil gently for 30 minutes.

  2. In a pan, fry the onions, carrots, and turnips in butter until browned, then add to the soup.

  3. Stew the mixture until the peas are reduced to a pulp.

  4. Season with salt and cayenne, boil for 2-3 minutes, then pass through a sieve, pressing the vegetables.

  5. Return the soup to the pot, adding more stock if too thick, and boil to reduce.

  6. Add the sliced celery and cook until tender.

Serve

  1. Serve the soup with small fried or toasted slices, and stir in curry powder if desired.

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 a pulp, giving the soup its thick body and texture.
Brown gravy stock
Provides the liquid base and the savory, meaty flavor of the soup.
Onions
Browned in butter, they add sweetness and depth of flavor to the soup.
Carrots
Browned in butter and pressed through the sieve, adding sweetness and body.
Turnips
Browned in butter and pressed through the sieve, adding body and earthy flavor.
Butter
Fat used to brown the vegetables, adding richness and browned flavor.

The step that matters

Pressing the vegetables through the sieve. Pressing forces the softened peas and vegetables through the mesh, so the soup becomes smooth and thick. Skipping this step or using too coarse a sieve leaves the soup grainy and thin.

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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