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Soup

Potato Soup

A soup of boiled, mashed potatoes mixed with butter, milk, and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 potatoes

  1. Pare the potatoes and boil them until tender.

  2. Drain the water and mash the potatoes.

Make the soup

  1. Add the butter, salt, pepper, and milk to the mashed potatoes.

  2. Boil the mixture for 2-3 minutes.

Serve

  1. Place the parsley in a soup tureen.

  2. Pour the soup through a colander into the tureen.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the body of the soup, thickening into a smooth, starchy base when mashed.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the soup a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds liquid and creaminess, softening the mashed potato into a pourable soup.

The step that matters

Boiling the mixture for 2-3 minutes. Milk can scorch or boil over on the bottom of the pan if left unattended. Stirring keeps the proteins from sticking and burning, and gentle heat keeps the soup smooth rather than curdled.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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