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Green Pea Soup

A creamy soup made with green peas, broth, onion, butter, and optional heavy cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Green Pea Soup

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Green Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, melt the butter over medium heat and sauté the chopped onion until translucent.

  2. Add the green peas and broth, then bring to a boil.

  3. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes until peas are tender.

Blend and serve

  1. Blend the soup until smooth, then season with salt and pepper.

  2. If desired, stir in heavy cream 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.

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.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

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

  5. Peas + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,528 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Green peas
Form the main body of the soup and give it its bright green color and flavor.
Broth
Provides the liquid that cooks the peas and carries the soup's savory flavor.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it softens in the butter.
Butter
Carries the onion's flavor and adds richness to the soup.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and a smoother, silkier mouthfeel when stirred in.

The step that matters

Simmer until the peas are tender. Peas that are undercooked stay starchy and grainy, so the blended soup will not be smooth. Cooking them fully softens their cell walls so blending yields a velvety texture.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion, butter, pepper, cream):

  1. Sesamefits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Peanutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, butter, pepper, cream. 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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