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Potato Soup

A simple potato soup made by boiling potatoes and onion, mashing, and optionally adding salt pork, milk, egg, and celery leaves.

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

  1. Boil the potatoes and onion in water until very tender.

  2. Mash or press through a colander to remove lumps.

  3. If using, add salt pork, milk, or beaten egg for richness.

  4. Season with salt and pepper, and stir in chopped celery leaves for flavor.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Onion + celerytop 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
Starchy body that breaks down when cooked and mashed, giving the soup its thick texture.
Onion
Softens during boiling and adds a mild, savory sweetness to the broth.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, softening the flavor and making the texture creamier.
Beaten egg
Adds richness and body, thickening the soup slightly when stirred in.

The step that matters

Boil until very tender. Potatoes that are not fully softened will stay lumpy and resist mashing or pressing through a colander, leaving a grainy texture. Full cooking lets the starch break down so the soup turns smooth.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, pepper, pork, milk, egg):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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