Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Potato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Boil the potatoes with the salt pork and celery until tender.
Pass the mixture through a colander.
Add milk or cream to achieve a thick cream consistency, adding butter if using milk.
Stir in the chopped parsley and let it boil for 5 minutes.
If desired, chop the onions and boil them with the soup.
Fry the bread and serve
Fry the bread dice in hot lard until brown, then drain.
Place the fried bread in the bottom of a soup tureen and pour the soup over it.
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.
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Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,810 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,855 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Potato + porktop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,668 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,047 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Cook down to a soft base that is passed through a colander to give the soup its body.
- Milk or cream
- Adds richness and moisture, thinning the purée to a thick, smooth cream consistency.
- Salt pork
- Adds savory fat and salty flavor to the broth as it boils with the potatoes.
- Dry bread
- Frying in lard turns the diced bread crisp and browned, giving a crunchy contrast to the soup.
The step that matters
Frying the bread dice. Bread browns quickly in hot lard, so it can go from golden to dark and bitter if left unattended. Drain it promptly so it stays crisp when the soup is poured over it.
Swap the onion
The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, pork, celery, milk, parsley, bread):
- Carrotfits better
- Tomatofits better
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pork, celery, milk, parsley, bread. 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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