Why it works: Potato and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Potato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the potatoes
Boil the potatoes in salted water until soft.
Mash the potatoes and beat until light.
Make the soup
Gradually add the milk to the potato mixture.
Mix the flour with a little cold liquid and add it to the potato mixture.
Bring the mixture to a boil, then add the fat and salt.
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 + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 starchy base that the soup is built on.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and creaminess, loosening the mashed potato into a soup.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid as its starch swells when heated.
- Fat
- Adds richness and carries flavor through the soup.
The step that matters
Mix the flour with cold liquid before adding it. Flour lumps if it goes straight into hot mixture, because its starch granules clump before they can separate. Dispersing the flour in a little cold liquid first lets the granules spread evenly, so they thicken smoothly once the soup heats.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Potatothe original
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Parsnipfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, 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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