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Potato Soup

A creamy potato soup made with mashed potatoes, milk, cream, egg yolks, and seasonings, cooked in a double boiler.

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

Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the potatoes

  1. Cook the potatoes until very soft.

  2. Drain the potatoes.

  3. Mash the potatoes.

Make the soup

  1. Add the beaten egg yolks, milk, and seasonings to the mashed potatoes.

  2. Cook in a double boiler until it thickens, stirring constantly.

Serve

  1. 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.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the main body and starch that gives the soup its thick, smooth texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the soup as they set with gentle heat and add richness.
Milk
Supplies the liquid base and creamy mouthfeel of the soup.

The step that matters

Cooking the egg yolks in the double boiler. Egg yolks thicken by coagulating under gentle heat. Too much heat or no stirring can curdle them into grainy lumps, so keep the heat moderate and stir constantly.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

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