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Creole Soup

A soup of young peas, asparagus tips, and carrots simmered in water, seasoned, and served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and asparagus match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 808 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Creole Soup

one quart

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Boil young peas, asparagus tips, and small diced carrots separately until tender.

  2. Drain the vegetables and set aside.

Make the soup

  1. Add enough water to the vegetable cooking water to make one quart.

  2. Heat the water without boiling, then add the prepared vegetables.

Season and serve

  1. Season to taste and serve with croutons.

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. Peas + asparagustop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together808 recipes

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

  2. Asparagus + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together571 recipes

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

  3. Peas + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,994 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Young peas
Provide the main flavour and soft, tender texture once cooked.
Asparagus tips
Add a tender texture and a fresh, green flavour.
Small diced carrots
Add sweetness and colour as they soften in the liquid.

The step that matters

Heat the liquid without boiling. Gentle heat warms the prepared vegetables evenly while keeping them intact. A rolling boil can overcook them, making them mushy and dulling their colour and fresh flavour.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, asparagus):

  1. Cauliflowerfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, asparagus. 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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