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Potato Soup

A creamy potato soup with onion, cream, milk, egg, and butter.

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

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Cut the potatoes finely and soak them in cold water.

  2. Cook the potatoes in salted water until tender.

Make the soup

  1. Add a little chopped onion, cream, and milk.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Beat the egg slightly.

  4. Pour the beaten egg in slowly while cooking; do not stir.

  5. Add a small piece of butter.

  6. Serve.

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

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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 as they cook.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the soup.
Milk
Thins the soup and adds mild sweetness and a creamy texture.
Egg
Adds richness and body; slowly poured in unstirred, it forms soft threads instead of scrambling.

The step that matters

Pour the beaten egg in slowly without stirring. Egg proteins set when heated. Pouring slowly while the soup is hot and leaving it unstirred lets the egg form fine, soft strands rather than clumps or scrambled bits.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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