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Potato Soup a LA Crj&Me

A potato soup made with potatoes, onion, celery, butter, consommé, cream, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Potato Soup a LA Crj&Me

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean, peel, wash, and slice the potatoes.

  2. In a stewpan, combine potatoes, sliced onion, and sliced celery.

Make the soup

  1. Add butter, pepper, salt, and nutmeg; simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally until nearly dissolved.

  2. Add consommé and boil gently for 30 minutes.

  3. Pass the mixture through a tamis into a soup pot.

  4. If needed, add more consommé and heat gently to clarify.

Finish and serve

  1. Just before serving, stir in boiling cream, a pat of butter, and pounded sugar.

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

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

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 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
Break down during simmering to give the soup its body and thickness.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the soup.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky texture when stirred in at the end.
Consommé
Provides the liquid base and savory flavor of the soup.

The step that matters

Passing the mixture through a tamis. Straining breaks down and removes fibers and lumps so the soup becomes smooth. Skipping or rushing this leaves a grainy texture, since the potatoes and vegetables must be fully softened before straining.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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