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Potato and Celery Soup

A simple soup made from boiled potatoes, celery, onion, milk, butter, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 and Celery Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Pare the potatoes.

  2. Boil them for 30 minutes, then turn off the water.

  3. Mash the potatoes until light.

Make the soup

  1. Boil the onion and celery in the milk.

  2. Add the boiling milk to the mashed potatoes along with the butter, pepper, and salt.

  3. Rub the mixture through a strainer.

  4. Serve immediately.

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

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

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Celery + oniontop 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
Provide the starchy body that thickens the soup as they are mashed.
Milk
Adds liquid and creaminess, and its sugars add mild sweetness when simmered.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma and depth as it softens in the milk.
Celery
Adds a fresh, herbal aroma and subtle savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Mash the potatoes until light. Mashing gently keeps the potatoes fluffy. Overworking them releases excess starch, which makes the soup gluey.

Swap the celery

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

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

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

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