Why it works: Potato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,047 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Cream of Potato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the potatoes
Peel and chop the potatoes.
Boil the potatoes in water until tender.
Make the soup
In a separate pot, sauté the minced celery until soft.
Add the cooked potatoes and their water to the celery.
Stir in the flour to thicken the soup.
Simmer until the soup reaches the desired consistency.
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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Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,047 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Celery + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,905 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Their starch breaks down in the cooking water, giving the soup body and a creamy texture.
- Celery
- Softened in the pot, it builds a savory, aromatic base for the soup.
- Flour
- Its starch swells in hot liquid and thickens the soup.
The step that matters
Stir in the flour to thicken the soup. Flour starch swells and thickens only when it is well dispersed in hot liquid. Added dry, it can clump into lumps, so stir thoroughly, then simmer long enough for the starch to fully thicken the soup and lose its raw flour taste.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, flour):
- Turnipfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Arrowrootfits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against celery, flour. 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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