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Green Pea

A hearty soup of green peas, beef, and rice flour, simmered slowly and seasoned with salt, pepper, and optional parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Green Pea

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Boil the empty pods of the peas in the water for 1 hour before adding the beef.

  2. Strain out the pods, add the beef, and boil slowly for 1.5 hours.

Finish the soup

  1. Half an hour before serving, add the shelled peas.

  2. Twenty minutes later, add the rice flour, salt, and pepper.

  3. Stir frequently to prevent scorching.

  4. Strain into a hot tureen and serve.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Peas + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,434 recipes

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

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Beef + ricetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Rice + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,762 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Adds savoury meaty flavour and substance to the soup as it simmers.
Green peas
Provide the main flavour, sweetness and body of the soup.
Rice flour
Starch that thickens the broth so it becomes smooth and creamy.

The step that matters

Stir frequently after adding the rice flour. Starch thickens the liquid and settles on the base of the pot, where it scorches quickly and leaves a burnt taste throughout the soup. Constant stirring keeps the starch suspended and evenly heated.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, peas, rice, flour, pepper):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, peas, rice, flour, 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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