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Potato Soup

A soup made with cooked potatoes, rice, milk, water, butter, onion, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 rice

  1. Cook the rice in a double boiler with 1 pint of water for 2 hours.

Make the soup

  1. Mash the cooked potatoes and add the milk and hot water.

  2. Melt the butter with ½ teacup of boiling water and cook the minced onion until soft.

  3. Mix the rice, potato mixture, and onion together thoroughly.

  4. Season with salt and white pepper.

  5. Just before serving, add the minced parsley and bring to a boil.

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. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Rice + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together851 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Cooked slowly in water until tender, it thickens the soup and gives it body.
Potatoes
Mashing them releases starch that thickens the soup and gives it a smooth, creamy texture.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess, and its milk sugars contribute mild sweetness and browning.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavor and gives the soup a rounded, rich mouthfeel.
Onion
Softened in butter, it adds savory aroma and sweetness as its sugars develop.

The step that matters

Cooking the rice for 2 hours. Rice must be cooked long enough for its starch to fully gelatinize and soften; undercooked grains stay firm and make the soup grainy, while the gentle heat of a double boiler prevents scorching and sticking.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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