Skip to main content
Main

Friday Soup

A potato and onion soup thickened with tapioca and milk, seasoned with butter, pepper, salt, and optional marjoram or nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Friday Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Cut the vegetables and add them to 2 quarts of boiling water.

  2. Boil for 30 minutes.

  3. Rub the vegetables through a sieve and return the puree to the pot.

  4. Add seasoning and boil the tapioca in the soup for 15 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the milk and heat thoroughly before serving.

  2. Add a little marjoram or nutmeg 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.

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. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Potato + marjoramtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  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 into a puree that gives the soup its body and thickness.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aroma as they soften in the broth.
Crushed tapioca
Thickens the soup as its starch swells and turns glossy while boiling.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a softer, richer texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Boil the tapioca in the soup for 15 minutes. Tapioca starch needs sustained boiling to fully swell and thicken. If it is undercooked, it leaves a grainy or pasty texture and the soup stays thin or cloudy.

Swap the marjoram

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

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

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

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes