Name: Pea Soup
Ingredients: ½ lb pickled pork; 3 quarts water; 2 cups dried peas; 1 onion; 1 oz flour; 1 stalk celery; seasoning to taste

Why it works: Onion and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,518 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Soak the peas overnight in cold water.

Make the soup

Boil the pickled pork in 3 quarts of water for 1 hour.
Add the soaked peas and cook for another hour.
Add the chopped onion and celery.
Remove the pork and rub the soup through a sieve.
Return the soup to the heat, thicken with flour, and add seasoning.

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.

Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,214 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Peas + celerytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,832 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,460 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + peastop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,589 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

Dried peas: Break down during long simmering to give the soup its body and thickness.
Pickled pork: Flavours the water as it simmers, adding savoury, salty richness to the soup.
Flour: Thickens the soup as it heats, giving a smoother, more substantial texture.
Onion: Adds aromatic sweetness and savoury depth as it softens in the soup.

The step that matters

Rubbing the soup through a sieve. Pushing the cooked soup through a sieve breaks down the softened peas and fibres into a smooth purée. Skipping or rushing this leaves the soup grainy, and the pork must be removed first so its fat and pieces do not clog the sieve.