Why it works: Potato and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓
Potato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the potatoes
Peel and thinly slice the potatoes.
Place the potatoes in a dish and cover with hot water.
Boil until the potatoes are tender.
Drain the potatoes and mash them finely.
Make the soup
Return the mashed potatoes to the water.
Add salt, pepper, butter, cream, and enough water to achieve the desired soup consistency.
If desired, season with a few slices of salt pork.
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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Potato + porktop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,668 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + porktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Starch that breaks down and thickens the water into a creamy, body-rich soup.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
- Sweet cream
- Adds fat and richness, softening the flavor and giving a silkier texture.
The step that matters
Mashing the potatoes finely. Finely mashed potato releases its starch into the cooking water, which thickens the soup. Leaving lumps yields a coarser, uneven texture, and adding too much water or cream afterward thins the soup, so add liquid gradually.
“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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