Skip to main content
Main

Green Pea Soup

A soup made with lamb, peas, potatoes, salt, pepper, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Green Pea Soup

Why it works: Peas and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,016 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Green Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Wash the lamb in cold water.

  2. Place the lamb in a soup pot with 6 quarts of cold water.

  3. Add 2 tablespoons of coarse sea salt.

  4. Bring to a gentle boil over moderate heat.

  5. Skim the surface.

  6. Let it simmer for 2 hours.

Add the vegetables

  1. Add 1 quart of shelled peas.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon of pepper.

  3. Cover and boil for 30 minutes.

  4. Scrape the skins from 1 quart of small young potatoes.

  5. Add them to the soup.

  6. Cover the pot.

  7. Continue cooking until the potatoes are tender.

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.

  1. Peas + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,016 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Lamb + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together520 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Lamb + peastop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together650 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb
Simmered in water to build the rich, savory body of the soup.
Shelled peas
Add sweetness and a tender, vegetal texture to the broth.
Small young potatoes
Soften during cooking to thicken the soup slightly and add body.

The step that matters

Skim the surface. Once the gentle boil starts, foam and fat rise to the surface. Skimming removes them so the broth stays clear and clean-tasting during the long simmer.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, pepper, potato):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, potato. 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.

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesGreen PeasGreen Peas229 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipes