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A Cheau Green Peas Soup

A soup made with green peas, cucumbers, lettuce, onion, and herbs, simmered in pea shell liquid.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

A Cheau Green Peas Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pea shell liquor

  1. Wash pea shells thoroughly and add them to boiling salted water for 20 to 30 minutes until tender.

  2. Strain the mixture and press the pods with a wooden spoon to extract the liquid.

  3. In a clean saucepan, bring 2 quarts of the extracted liquid to a boil.

Cook the soup

  1. Add 1 quart of green peas, cucumbers, chopped lettuces, and the thinly sliced onion sautéed in butter.

  2. Cook for 30 minutes.

  3. Add parsley and mint, then simmer gently for 1 hour.

  4. Season with salt and white pepper or cayenne to taste.

Finish and serve

  1. Press the soup through a fine sieve, reheat, and serve with small fried bread sippets.

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. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Cucumber + minttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together884 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 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

Green peas
Give the soup its main body, sweet flavor and green color.
Lettuces
Add soft body and mild vegetable flavor as they cook down into the soup.
Cucumbers
Contribute fresh, cool flavor and moisture to the soup.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma when sautéed in butter first.
Butter
Adds fat and rich flavor to the softened onion.

The step that matters

Pressing the soup through a fine sieve. Pressing forces cooked peas and vegetables through the mesh, breaking down fibers for a smooth, silky texture. Skipping or rushing this step leaves the soup grainy.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, cucumber, lettuce, onion, butter, parsley, mint):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, cucumber, lettuce, onion, butter, parsley, 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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