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Potato Soup

A creamy potato soup made with milk, potatoes, celery, onion, butter, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hatfield (Mass.). Congregational Church · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Potato Soup

Why it works: Beans and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 655 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. Combine one quart of milk, six large potatoes, one stalk of celery, one tablespoon butter, and one large onion in a double boiler.

  2. Boil the mixture with celery and onion.

  3. Pare and boil the potatoes for thirty minutes.

  4. Turn off the water and mash the potatoes finely.

Finish and serve

  1. Season the mash with salt, pepper, and butter.

  2. Add the seasoned mash to the boiling milk.

  3. Strain the soup and serve immediately.

  4. Add a cup of whipped cream after the soup is in the tureen for improvement.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1315Calories
78 gProtein
41 gFat
157 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 13 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Pork100g cooked242
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Shrimp100g cooked99
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Beannot in our table0
Soupnot 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.

By Hatfield (Mass.). Congregational Church. 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.

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. Beans + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together655 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Celery + beanstop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  4. Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Cooked and mashed to thicken the soup and give it body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the mashed potatoes are added to.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the mashed potatoes and soup.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Add the seasoned mash to the boiling milk. Potatoes thicken as their starch swells and gelatinizes, and adding them to boiling milk with steady stirring keeps the soup smooth. Adding them too cold or without stirring can cause lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, pork, beans, bread, cream, potato):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Garlicfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, pork, beans, bread, cream, 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.

More potato soup recipes

Irish 12Sweet 9Cream 8Creamy 8Swiss 6Scotch 5 See all 473 →

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