Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Potato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the potatoes
Boil the potatoes in 1 quart of cold water.
When half done, drain and cover the potatoes with 1 pint of fresh boiling water.
Add the bay leaf, onion, parsley, and celery, and boil slowly until the potatoes are tender.
Make the thickened milk
Heat the milk in a double boiler.
Rub the butter and flour together, add to the hot milk, and stir until it thickens.
Combine and serve
When the potatoes are tender, press them through a sieve with the water they were boiled in.
Gradually add the thickened milk to the potato mixture, return to the double boiler, and heat until very hot.
Serve immediately; this soup does not reheat well.
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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Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,810 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,855 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 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
- Potatoes
- Provide the main body and starch that thicken the soup when pressed through a sieve.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base, giving the soup its creamy, smooth texture.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk as it cooks with the butter, giving the soup body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries flavor, and helps form a smooth roux with the flour.
- Celery
- Adds a savory, aromatic flavor to the cooking water.
The step that matters
Adding the thickened milk to the potatoes. Adding the thickened milk gradually, and heating it through without boiling hard, keeps the soup smooth and prevents lumps or curdling from the starch and dairy.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, milk, parsley, celery, butter, flour, pepper):
- Carrotfits better
- Chivefits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, parsley, celery, butter, 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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