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Cream-of-green-pea Soup

A creamy soup made from green peas, milk, cream, butter, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cream-of-green-pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Combine the peas, onion, and water in a stewpan.

  2. Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes.

  3. Remove the onion from the peas.

  4. Mash the peas well.

  5. Strain the mashed peas through a fine strainer, discarding the hulls.

Make the soup base

  1. Pour the milk into a double boiler. Heat the milk.

  2. Beat together the butter and flour in a bowl until smooth.

  3. Gradually pour the hot milk into the butter-flour mixture, stirring constantly.

Combine and serve

  1. Add the beef extract to the strained peas.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Stir the pea mixture into the milk.

  4. Cook for an additional 10 minutes.

  5. Strain the soup again.

  6. Serve hot.

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. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

Peas
Provide the main body and green flavour of the soup once mashed and strained.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base that gives the soup its smooth, rich body.
Butter and flour
Together form a roux that thickens the milk into a smooth, velvety soup.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel through its fat content.
Beef extract
Adds concentrated savoury depth to the pea soup.

The step that matters

Adding the hot milk to the butter-flour mixture. Pouring hot milk in gradually while stirring constantly keeps the flour dispersed, so the roux thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.

Swap the peas

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

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

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