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Cream of Oxion Soup

A creamy soup made with onions, butter, corn starch, flour, milk, mashed potatoes, and croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cream of Oxion Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the onion base

  1. Slice two large onions and fry until lightly browned in three tablespoonfuls butter.

  2. Add one-fourth cup corn starch, one tablespoonful flour, one teaspoonful salt, and one-fourth teaspoonful white pepper.

  3. Stir until slightly browned, but do not allow to burn.

  4. Pour in gradually two cups boiling water and cook until smooth.

  5. Keep hot.

Add the milk and potatoes

  1. Scald one quart of milk, pour it gradually onto one cup smoothly mashed potatoes.

  2. Combine the mixture.

Finish and serve

  1. Simmer and stir for a few minutes, add one cup croutons, cover, and let stand a moment before serving.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

917Calories
27 gProtein
21 gFat
156 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

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

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. See the original page.

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. Corn + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  5. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Fat that softens the onions and carries their flavor into the base.
Corn starch
Thickens the soup as it cooks with the liquid.
Flour
Adds body and helps thicken the base alongside the starch.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid that gives the soup its richness.
Mashed potatoes
Adds body and extra thickness to the creamy soup.
Onions
Provide the main flavor, sweetened and deepened by browning in butter.

The step that matters

Stir the onion base until slightly browned, not burnt. Browning the flour and starch in butter deepens flavor, but scorched starch tastes bitter and can spoil the whole pot. Keep the heat moderate and keep stirring.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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