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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made with boiled potatoes, milk, butter, cream, and egg yolks, seasoned with onion, celery, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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. Boil the milk with the onion and celery.

  2. Peel the potatoes.

  3. Boil the potatoes until well done.

  4. Mash the potatoes finely.

Make the soup

  1. Add the mashed potatoes to the milk along with the butter, salt, and pepper.

  2. In a separate bowl, combine the cream and egg yolks.

  3. Strain the soup.

  4. Stir thoroughly.

  5. Serve 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. 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
Provide the starchy body that thickens the soup and gives it a smooth, substantial texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base and adds richness and mild sweetness to the soup.
Egg yolks
Enrich the soup and help it thicken when gently heated with the cream.
Cream
Adds fat for a richer mouthfeel and a silkier finish.
Butter
Adds fat and a rounded, savory flavor to the soup.

The step that matters

Combine the cream and egg yolks into the soup. Egg yolks thicken by setting when heated, so if the soup is too hot when they go in, they can scramble and turn grainy. Adding them gently and stirring thoroughly keeps the texture smooth.

Swap the celery

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

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

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