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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made from boiled potatoes, milk, onion, celery, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil the potatoes in a quart of water until tender.

  2. Mash the potatoes and strain them through a colander.

Make the soup

  1. In a double boiler, bring 2 cups of milk to a boil with the chopped onion and celery.

  2. Pour the hot milk mixture over the mashed potatoes and stir well.

  3. Return the mixture to the pot, adding the butter and flour.

  4. Let it boil for 5 minutes and serve very hot.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy body and bulk that give the soup its thick, smooth texture.
Milk
Adds creaminess and liquid, carrying the soup's body and mellow flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, rounding out flavor and smoothing the mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it heats, giving it more body.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and boiling. Flour must be stirred in well and kept at a boil so its starch swells and thickens the soup evenly. Stirred in poorly, it can form lumps that stay in the finished soup.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, milk, onion, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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