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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made from boiled potatoes, onions, butter, parsley, celery seed, milk, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Potato Soup

Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Scrub the potatoes.

  2. Place the potatoes in a pan with enough water to cover.

  3. Boil gently until the potatoes are done.

  4. Pour off the water.

  5. Peel the potatoes.

  6. Pass the potatoes through a sieve.

Make the soup

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the minced onions, parsley, and celery seed.

  3. Cover and steam the mixture gently for 15 minutes.

  4. Add the potatoes.

  5. Add enough water to make a smooth, firm batter.

  6. Stir in enough milk to achieve a cream-like consistency.

  7. Bring to a boil.

  8. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  9. Serve.

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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the soup and thicken it as their starch binds with the liquid.
Butter
Carries the onion flavour and adds richness to the finished soup.
Onions
Provide savoury sweetness and aroma as they soften while steaming in butter.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, loosening the thick purée to a cream-like consistency.

The step that matters

Stir in the milk gradually. The potato purée is thick and starchy, so adding milk in stages and bringing the soup to a boil only after it is combined keeps the texture smooth rather than lumpy or stiff.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, parsley, celery, milk, cream, 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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