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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made from mashed potatoes, onions, white sauce, milk, and cream, seasoned with salt and paprika.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Potato Soup

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 ↓

Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. Peel and boil the potatoes until soft.

  2. Drain and mash the potatoes.

  3. Grate the onions and add them to the mashed potatoes.

  4. Stir in the white sauce, salt, and paprika.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the scalded milk and bring the soup to a boil.

  2. If desired, stir in the cream and chopped parsley before serving.

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.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  5. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the body of the soup, thickening it as they break down when mashed.
White sauce
Adds richness and body, helping the soup feel smooth and thick.
Scalded milk
Supplies liquid and creaminess, thinning the mash into a soup.
Onions
Add savoury aroma and flavour once grated into the potatoes.
Cream
Adds fat and a silky, rich mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Bringing the soup to a boil after adding the milk. Milk can scorch or curdle when overheated on the bottom of the pot. Stir often while heating, and keep the heat moderate so the soup stays smooth rather than sticking or separating.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, sauce, milk, cream):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, sauce, milk, 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.

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