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Potato Soup

A hearty beef and potato soup with peas, rice, celery, and seasonings, served with fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

  1. Cut the beef into thin slices.

  2. In a stewpan, combine the beef, water, potatoes, onion, peas, and rice.

  3. Stew gently until the gravy is drawn from the meat.

Make the soup

  1. Strain the mixture, remove the beef, and pulp the remaining ingredients through a coarse sieve.

  2. Return the pulp to the soup, add the chopped celery, and simmer until tender.

  3. Season to taste and serve with fried bread.

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. 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. Potato + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together851 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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 when pulped, giving the soup its body and thickness.
Rice
Releases starch as it cooks, helping thicken the soup.
Shin of beef
Slowly releases gravy and flavour into the water as it stews.
Peas
Add sweetness and soft texture once pulped into the soup.
Celery
Adds a fresh, aromatic savoury note as it softens in the simmer.

The step that matters

Stew gently until the gravy is drawn from the meat. A gentle heat lets collagen and juices leave the beef slowly, producing a flavourful broth. Vigorous boiling toughens the meat and can cloud the soup.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, potato, onion, rice, celery, pepper):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Black-eyed peafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, onion, rice, celery, 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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