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Soup

Milk Soup

A creamy soup made with potatoes, sago, onions, milk, and water, seasoned with 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 ↓

Milk Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash, peel, and slice the potatoes.

  2. Parboil the potatoes and drain the water.

  3. Peel and chop the onions into small pieces.

Make the soup

  1. Combine the parboiled potatoes, chopped onions, pepper, and salt with 2 pints of water in a pot.

  2. Bring to a boil and cook for about 30 minutes until the mixture is soft.

  3. Crush the potatoes and onions with a fork or spoon until smooth.

  4. Add the milk and sago, stirring constantly until it boils.

  5. Boil for 10 to 15 minutes until the sago is clear and cooked.

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

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

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

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Onion + milktop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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 softens and thickens the soup when crushed.
Sago
Thickens the soup as its starch cooks and turns clear.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness to the soup.
Onions
Add savory flavor as they soften during cooking.

The step that matters

Adding the milk and sago. Stir constantly once the milk is in, because milk can scorch or form a skin on the bottom of the pot. Constant stirring also keeps the sago from clumping as its starch hydrates and thickens.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, 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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