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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made with milk, mashed potato, butter, onion, flour, salt, and pepper.

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

  1. Scald the milk in a double boiler.

  2. Add the mashed potato to the scalded milk.

  3. Cook the mashed potato mixture for 10 minutes.

  4. Melt the butter in a pan.

  5. Stir the flour into the melted butter.

  6. Add the butter and flour mixture to the milk.

  7. Cook the onion with the potato.

  8. Add seasoning.

  9. Strain the mixture through a strainer.

  10. Reheat the soup.

  11. Serve with croutons or hot crackers.

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

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the soup and gives it a smooth, creamy body.
Mashed potato
Thickens the soup and adds body and substance.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and is cooked with flour to form a thickening roux.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk mixture so the soup becomes smooth and velvety.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and sweetness as it cooks with the potato.

The step that matters

Adding the butter and flour mixture to the milk. Flour must be cooked in butter first so it does not clump, and the mixture should be stirred in smoothly. Thickening then develops as the starch swells with heat, so the soup should be kept warm rather than boiled hard to avoid scorching or lumps.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, potato, 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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