Name: Ham and Potato Soup
Ingredients: ¼ cup butter; 1 garlic clove chopped; ½ onion chopped; 1 lb ham chopped; ½ cup flour; 3 cups chicken broth; 4 cups peeled diced potatoes; 2 tsp black pepper; 2 cups heavy cream or half and half; 12 oz Velveeta cubed; 1 cup shredded cheddar

Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

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.

Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Garlic + potatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,517 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Garlic + chickentop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,850 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,756 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes: Starch that softens during simmering, thickening the soup and giving it body.
Flour: Thickens the butter base into a roux that helps the broth turn creamy.
Heavy cream or half and half: Adds richness and fat, giving the soup a smooth, velvety texture.
Velveeta: Processed cheese that melts smoothly, adding creaminess without becoming grainy.
Ham: Browns lightly in butter and adds savory, salty flavor throughout the soup.

The step that matters

Thickening the broth. Stirring the flour into the butter and then the broth over heat until bubbly cooks out the raw flour taste and lets the starch swell, so the soup thickens evenly without lumps.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, garlic, onion, ham, flour, chicken, potato):

Thymefits better
Parsleyfits better
Capersfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, garlic, onion, ham, flour, chicken, potato. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Pork	100g cooked	242
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Cheddar Cheese	1 oz (28g)	113
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4

Ham and Potato Soup