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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made from potatoes, onions, milk, butter, pepper, salt, and optionally an egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Cook the potatoes and onions until tender.

  2. Rub them through a wire sieve into a pot.

  3. Add milk until the mixture is the consistency of cream.

  4. Stir in the butter, pepper, and salt.

  5. Bring the soup to a boil.

Finish and serve

  1. If desired, add the whisked egg just before serving.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Break down when sieved to give the soup its thick, body-filling texture.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma as they soften during cooking.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, thinning the purée to the desired consistency.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavor and a smoother mouthfeel.
Whisked egg
Enriches the soup and gives it a little extra body when stirred in.

The step that matters

Add the whisked egg just before serving. Egg proteins set when heated, so if the soup is boiling when the egg goes in it can curdle into fine threads. Adding it off the heat or just before serving keeps the texture smooth.

Swap the walnut

The recipe marks walnut as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, milk, butter, pepper, egg):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Peanutfits about as well
  3. Sesamefits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, milk, butter, pepper, egg. 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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