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Potato Soup a LA Creme

A creamy soup made from 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 Creme

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. In a stewpan, combine the sliced potatoes, onion, and celery.

  2. Add the butter, pepper, salt, and nutmeg, then simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is nearly pureed.

  3. Add the consommé and boil gently on moderate heat for 30 minutes.

Strain and finish

  1. Pass the mixture through a tammy into a soup pot.

  2. If needed, add more consommé and gently boil to clarify.

  3. Just before serving, stir in the 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 thick, creamy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel that carries the flavour of the soup.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture when stirred in at the end.
White consommé
Provides the liquid base that cooks the vegetables and carries the savoury flavour.
Onion
Contributes savoury aromatic depth as it softens into the base.

The step that matters

Passing the mixture through a tammy. Pressing the cooked vegetables through a fine strainer removes fibres and lumps, producing a smooth, even texture. Skipping or rushing this leaves the soup grainy.

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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