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Potato Soup

A creamy potato soup made with boiled potatoes, onions, milk, butter, pepper, salt, and optional parsley or mint.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Potato Soup

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Pare and boil the potatoes until tender.

  2. Peel and finely shred the onions.

  3. Simmer the shredded onions slowly in a little water.

  4. Rub the potatoes and onions through a sieve.

Make the soup

  1. Mix the sieved mixture with milk until smooth and creamy.

  2. Add the butter, pepper, and salt to taste.

  3. In a clean saucepan, bring the milk to a boil.

  4. Slowly stir in the potato mixture, allowing it to boil for 15 to 20 minutes.

  5. If desired, add finely chopped parsley or mint a few minutes 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the bulk and starch that thicken the soup as they break down.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma as they soften and dissolve into the purée.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Milk
Supplies the liquid base and creaminess that makes the soup smooth.

The step that matters

Slowly stir in the potato mixture. Adding the purée slowly while the milk is hot helps it blend evenly without clumping. Keeping the soup at a gentle boil for the full 15 to 20 minutes lets the starch thicken it and cooks out any raw flavor.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, butter, milk, pepper):

  1. Garlicfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Celeryfits less well

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