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Otato Soup

A creamy soup made with mashed potatoes, milk, butter, flour, onion, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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 ↓

Otato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Scald the milk in a double boiler.

  2. Add the mashed potato to the scalded milk and cook for 10 minutes.

  3. Melt the butter in a pan. Stir in the flour.

  4. Add the butter and flour mixture to the milk.

  5. Cook the chopped onion with the potato mixture.

  6. Season with salt and pepper.

  7. Strain through a strainer.

  8. Reheat the soup.

Serve

  1. Serve with croutons or hot crackers.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

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

Butter
Enriches the soup with fat and adds a rich, mellow flavor.
Mashed potato
Adds body and thickness, giving the soup a creamy, smooth texture.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk mixture, helping the soup become smooth and creamy.
Milk
Forms the liquid base and contributes creaminess and sweetness.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and depth of flavor as it cooks.

The step that matters

Add the butter and flour mixture to the milk. Flour clumps if added raw to hot liquid. Cooking it in butter first and adding it gradually to the milk, while stirring, helps the soup thicken smoothly without lumps.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, potato, flour, 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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