Skip to main content
Main

Vichyssoise

A chilled soup of mashed potatoes, leeks, shallots, and cream, seasoned with butter, bouillon, pepper, and wine.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Leek and shallot share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 64 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Vichyssoise

Serves 8
Time20 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Peel potatoes and remove all brown and discolored areas.

  2. Boil potatoes for 20 minutes or until the interiors are soft when stuck with a knife; do not overcook.

  3. Drain potatoes, retain liquid, let the potatoes cool, then mash with fork.

Make the soup

  1. In a braiser over low heat, sauté leek and shallot bottoms in the butter until translucent, or about 10 minutes.

  2. Add chicken base, white pepper, white wine, heavy cream, and milk; simmer until soup starts to bubble.

  3. Add mashed potatoes and whisk vigorously; if the soup is too thick add some of the potato water.

Chill and serve

  1. Chill the soup.

  2. Just before serving, put the soup in a blender and blend on low speed for 20 seconds.

  3. Garnish with shallot tops.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

710Calories
46 gProtein
29 gFat
63 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Chicken100g cooked165
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Shallot1 tbsp minced (10g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Leek + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together64 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Potato + leektop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Potato + chickentop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Break down when mashed to give the soup its thick, creamy body.
Leeks
Add a mild onion-like sweetness and aroma as they soften in butter.
Butter
Carries the aromatics and adds richness and a silky mouthfeel.
Heavy whipping cream
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, velvety texture.
Milk
Thins the soup and adds mild dairy flavor and body.
White wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the soup base.

The step that matters

Do not overcook the potatoes. Overboiled potatoes absorb water and turn gluey or waterlogged when mashed, which thins the texture and makes the soup pasty instead of silky.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, leek, shallot, chicken, white wine, cream):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, leek, shallot, chicken, white wine, cream. 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.

You might also like

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipes