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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made from mashed potatoes, milk, onion, celery, butter, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Peel the potatoes and soak them in cold water for 30 minutes.

  2. Boil the potatoes in water until very soft, then drain and mash them.

Make the soup

  1. Cook the onion and celery in the milk using a double boiler, then strain the mixture.

  2. Add the strained mixture to the mashed potatoes.

  3. In a separate pan, cook the butter and flour together, then stir it into the boiling soup.

  4. Let the soup boil for 5 minutes and serve very hot.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 into the liquid.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a soft, mellow body to the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and smoothing the texture.
Flour
Thickens the soup when cooked with butter and stirred into the liquid.
Celery
Contributes a savory, aromatic flavor to the milk.

The step that matters

Stirring the butter and flour into the boiling soup. Flour added to hot liquid can clump if not first cooked with fat. Cooking the butter and flour together into a roux and stirring it in while the soup boils helps it dissolve smoothly and thicken evenly.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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