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Soup

Common Peas Soup

A hearty soup made from split peas simmered with beef broth, seasoned with salt, pepper, and baking soda.

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 remove any floating debris.

  2. Soak the peas overnight in water.

Cook and strain

  1. Boil the peas with baking soda in just enough water to cover them until they break down into a mash, about 2 to 2½ hours.

  2. Add the mashed peas to 3 to 4 quarts of beef broth and simmer gently for 1 hour.

  3. Pass the mixture through a sieve and reheat as needed.

Season and serve

  1. Season with salt and cayenne or black pepper.

  2. 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 that thickens the soup and gives it body.
Baking soda
Raises the cooking pot's alkalinity, helping the peas soften and break down faster.
Beef broth
Supplies the liquid base and savory flavor for the soup.

The step that matters

Boiling the peas until they break down. The peas must cook in just enough water to become a thick mash. Too much water dilutes the soup, while stopping early leaves hard, grainy pieces that a sieve cannot smooth out.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits about as well
  2. Lima beansfits about as well
  3. Peasthe original
  4. Chestnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against 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.

More pea soup recipes

Green 380Split 228Baked Split 20Creamed 13Dried 10Winter 9 See all 368 →

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