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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made from boiled potatoes, milk, celery, onion, butter, salt, pepper, and optional whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 base

  1. Combine milk, celery, and onion in a double boiler.

  2. Boil the mixture.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Peel the potatoes.

  2. Boil the potatoes for 30 minutes.

  3. Drain the potatoes.

  4. Mash the potatoes finely.

  5. Season the mashed potatoes with salt, pepper, and butter.

Combine and serve

  1. Add the seasoned potatoes to the boiling milk mixture.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Serve immediately.

  4. Add a cup of whipped cream if desired.

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. Celery + oniontop 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 when mashed, giving it thickness and a smooth, starchy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the soup and gives it a creamy, rich texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel to the seasoned potatoes.
Onion
Adds aromatic flavor to the milk as it simmers.
Celery
Adds a mild, savory aroma to the milk base.

The step that matters

Boiling the milk mixture before adding the potatoes. Milk can scorch or curdle when it is overheated, so keeping it gently at a boil in a double boiler and adding the potatoes steadily helps keep the soup smooth and evenly heated.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Garlicfits about as well
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

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