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White Soup

A creamy soup made with onions, potatoes, egg, and milk, seasoned with salt and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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 ↓

White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the onions and potatoes until tender.

  2. Mash the boiled onions and potatoes and pass them through a colander.

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, combine the mashed mixture with the hot milk.

  2. Stir in the beaten egg, salt, and butter.

  3. Heat gently until warmed through, then serve.

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.

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. Onion + potatotop 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 + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Break down when mashed to give the soup body and a thick, smooth texture.
Onions
Add savory flavor and body once boiled and mashed into the soup base.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and creaminess that makes up most of the soup.
Egg
Enriches the soup and adds richness and body when stirred in.

The step that matters

Stirring in the beaten egg. Egg proteins set when they meet heat, so adding it to very hot liquid can scramble it. Stir it in well and keep the soup gently heated rather than boiling.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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