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Mutter or Split Peas Soup

A soup made from split peas, water or stock, ham or salted tongue, celery, served with fried bread and powdered mint.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Mutter or Split Peas Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the split peas in cold water for 1-2 hours.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the soaked peas and water or stock.

  3. Boil until they can be pulped through a sieve or coarse cloth.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the seasoned broth, ham or salted tongue, and celery to the peas. Boil together for a few minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve with fried bread and powdered mint on a separate plate.

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. Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Celery + minttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together334 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Peas + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

  5. Peas + celerytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Split peas
Provide the main body and thickness once boiled and pulped through a sieve.
Ham or salted tongue
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the soup.
Celery
Adds aromatic, herbal flavour to the soup.

The step that matters

Boil until the peas can be pulped. The peas must be cooked until soft enough to break down through a sieve or cloth; undercooked peas stay grainy and give the soup a poor texture.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, ham, bread, mint):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, ham, bread, mint. 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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