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Soup

Locro

A creamy potato and cheese soup from Ecuador made with butter, paprika, onion, potatoes, milk, cream, and Munster cheese.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 9,019 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Make the potato base

  1. Heat the butter in a large, heavy saucepan.

  2. Stir in the paprika.

  3. Add the onion.

  4. Sauté over moderate heat until the onion is softened.

  5. Pour in 4 cups water.

  6. Bring to a boil.

  7. Add the potatoes.

  8. Simmer over low heat, uncovered, stirring occasionally.

Add dairy and cheese

  1. When the potatoes are almost done, add the milk and cream.

  2. Continue to cook, stirring from time to time, until the potatoes begin to disintegrate.

  3. Stir the cheese into the potatoes.

  4. Season to taste with salt.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately.

  2. Serve avocado slices on separate plates to be eaten at the same time.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Onion + potatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,019 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,494 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Potato + milktop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,611 recipes

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

  5. Butter + potatotop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,445 recipes

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

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 thicken the stew and give it a creamy body.
Butter
Carries the paprika and softens the onion, adding richness to the base.
Milk and light cream
Add moisture and richness, smoothing the texture of the finished stew.
Munster cheese
Melts into the potatoes, adding savoury richness and a creamy, stringy body.
Onion
Softens during sautéing, contributing sweetness and savoury depth to the base.

The step that matters

Simmering until the potatoes begin to disintegrate. Cooking uncovered and stirring from time to time lets the starch in the potatoes break down and thicken the liquid. Stopping too early leaves the stew thin and chunky, while overcooking can make it pasty and scorch on the bottom of the pan.

“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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