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Common Peas Soup

A soup made from split peas simmered in beef broth, seasoned with salt, pepper, and served with fried or toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Common Peas Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Wash the split peas and soak them overnight.

  2. Boil the peas with the baking soda in just enough water to allow them to break down into a mash.

Make the soup

  1. Add the mashed peas to the beef broth and simmer gently for 1 hour.

  2. Pass the mixture through a sieve to achieve a smooth consistency.

  3. Reheat the soup as needed, season with salt and cayenne or black pepper, and remove any scum.

Serve

  1. Serve with fried or toasted bread.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

  3. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

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

  4. Peas + beeftop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,044 recipes

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

  5. Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 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

Split peas
Break down into a mash to give the soup its body and thickness.
Baking soda
Raises the pH of the peas, helping them soften and break down during boiling.
Beef broth
Provides the liquid base and savory flavor in which the mashed peas simmer.

The step that matters

Boil the peas with the baking soda until they break down. The peas must be boiled until they fully mash, because intact pea skins and grains will leave the soup grainy. The small amount of baking soda helps the peas soften and break down. Too little cooking leaves them firm, so the sieving step cannot produce a smooth texture.

Swap the filbert

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

  1. Lima beansfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Filbertthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, beef, pepper, bread. 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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