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Potato Soup

A hearty soup of pork, leeks, onion, potatoes, broth, water, and vermicelli.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Potato Soup

Why it works: Onion and potato 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

Make the soup base

  1. In a saucepan, combine the pork, leeks, onion, butter, and bay leaves. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  2. Add the sliced potatoes, white broth, water, salt, and pepper to the pan. Cover and let it boil slowly for 1 hour.

  3. Press the mixture through a sieve into another saucepan.

Finish and serve

  1. In boiling broth, drop in the vermicelli and boil for 10 minutes. Add it to the soup.

  2. Mix well and boil for an additional 10 minutes before serving.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Leek + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  3. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Leek + potatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Break down during simmering to thicken the soup and give it body.
Salt pork
Renders fat into the pan, adding savory flavor to the base.
Leeks
Soften during cooking and add mild onion-like sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich mouthfeel and helps soften the vegetables.
Vermicelli
Thin pasta that adds texture and body to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Pressing the mixture through a sieve. Forcing the cooked potatoes and vegetables through a sieve breaks them into fine particles, which creates a smooth, thick texture. Skipping or rushing this step leaves the soup lumpy and thin.

Swap the leek

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Leekthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, onion, butter, potato, 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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