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Split Pea Soup

A hearty soup of split peas, pork, onion, flour, butter, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Split Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Pick over and wash the peas.

  2. Soak overnight in 1 quart cold water with 4 tablespoons baking soda, then drain the peas.

Make the soup

  1. Add 8 cups cold water, pork, and onion.

  2. Simmer until soft, about 3 to 4 hours.

  3. Rub the mixture through a sieve.

  4. Cook the peas in boiling water until very soft.

  5. Press through a coarse sieve; there should be 2 cups of stock.

Finish

  1. Finish according to general method.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Dried split peas
Break down during long simmering to form the thick body of the soup.
Salt pork
Releases fat and savory flavor into the liquid as it simmers.
Flour
Thickens the soup by absorbing liquid and gelatinizing with heat.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavor and gives a rounder, richer mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, softening the soup's texture.
Chopped onion
Contributes aromatic flavor as it cooks into the stock.

The step that matters

Simmer until soft, about 3 to 4 hours. Split peas must fully soften to break down into a smooth purée. Undercooked peas stay grainy and will not pass through the sieve evenly, so the soup turns out coarse.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, onion, flour, pepper, butter, milk):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, onion, flour, pepper, butter, milk. 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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