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 ↓
Pea Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Rinse the split peas.
Boil the split peas in 2 quarts of water.
Add the potatoes, onion, carrot, turnip, celery, butter, salt, and pepper.
Cook until all ingredients are soft.
Finish and serve
Rub the mixture through a sieve and return it to the saucepan.
If the soup is too thick, add more water.
Bring to a boil.
Serve with fresh chopped mint or fried wholemeal bread cubes.
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.
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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,418 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,107 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Split peas
- Break down during cooking to thicken the soup and give it body.
- Potatoes
- Break down when cooked and add starch, helping the soup become smooth and thick.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and giving a smoother mouthfeel.
- Onion
- Adds savoury depth and aroma as its sugars and flavour compounds develop during cooking.
The step that matters
Cook until all ingredients are soft. Vegetables and split peas must be fully tender before sieving; undercooked pieces will not pass through the sieve smoothly and leave a grainy texture.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, carrot, turnip, celery, butter, pepper):
- Beansfits better
- Lentilsfits better
- Chickpeafits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, carrot, turnip, celery, butter, 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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