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Cream of Potato Soup

A creamy soup made from potatoes, onion, butter, broth, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Cream of Potato Soup

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cream of Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Peel and dice the potatoes.

  2. In a pot, melt the butter and sauté the onion until translucent.

Make the soup

  1. Add the diced potatoes and vegetable broth. Bring to a boil.

  2. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

  3. Blend the soup until smooth, then stir in the cream.

  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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.

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.

  1. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Starch that breaks down during simmering, giving the soup its thick, creamy body.
Vegetable broth
Liquid that cooks the potatoes and forms the base of the soup.
Onion
Softens into a sweet, savoury base flavour when sautéed in butter.
Butter
Fat that carries the onion's flavour and adds richness.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel to the blended soup.

The step that matters

Simmer until the potatoes are fully tender. Potato starch must be fully softened before blending; undercooked pieces stay grainy and make the soup gritty rather than smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, pepper, cream):

  1. Onionthe original
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, pepper, cream. 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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