Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Pea Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the peas
Drain the peas, add sugar and cold water, and cook slowly for 20 minutes.
Drain the peas again and rub them through a sieve.
Thicken and finish
Reheat the pea puree and thicken it with flour cooked and stirred smoothly in butter.
Put the onion in the milk and bring to a boil, then remove the onion.
Add the milk to the pea mixture, then add salt and pepper.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,460 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 flavour of the soup once cooked and puréed.
- Flour
- Thickens the puréed peas into a smooth, body-rich soup when cooked in butter.
- Butter
- Carries the flour so it cooks smoothly, adding richness to the soup.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and softens the flavour of the pea purée.
The step that matters
Cooking the flour and butter before thickening. Flour stirred into hot butter must be cooked and blended smoothly; if added raw or lumpy it will taste pasty and form lumps that do not dissolve into the purée.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, butter, milk, onion, pepper):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Milletfits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, butter, milk, onion, pepper. 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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