Name: Green Pea Soup
Ingredients: 1 peck of peas; 1 quart of water; 1 teaspoon of salt; 1 teaspoon of sugar; 1 quart of good stock (made with shin of beef); 1 onion, chopped finely; a few leaves of lettuce, chopped finely; a little parsley, chopped finely; a little mint, chopped finely

Why it works: Peas and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,137 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Green Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pea stock

Shell the peas and place the shells in a pot with 1 quart of water, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1 teaspoon of sugar.
Boil for 1 hour, then strain through a colander or sieve.

Make the soup

Return the liquid to the pot and add 1 quart of good stock, 1 chopped onion, chopped lettuce, parsley, mint, and the shelled peas.
Boil until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.
Season to taste and serve.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,137 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together1,483 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together1,293 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Parsley + minttop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,198 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together17,092 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

Peas: Provide the main body and sweet, vegetal flavour of the soup.
Onion: Adds savoury depth as it softens during the boil.
Good stock: Supplies the liquid base and meaty savouriness of the soup.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, sugar, beef, lettuce, parsley, mint):

Cucumberbetter flavor fit
Carrotbetter flavor fit
Shallotbetter flavor fit
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, sugar, beef, lettuce, parsley, mint. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.