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Cream Soup

A creamy soup made from stock, onion, potatoes, mace, milk, corn flour, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Cream Soup

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 ↓

Cream Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer the soup

  1. Combine the stock, onion, potatoes, and mace in a pot.

  2. Boil gently for 1 hour.

  3. Strain out the onion and mace.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the milk and a little corn flour to thicken to a cream-like consistency.

  2. Stir in a little butter before serving.

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

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

  2. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  4. Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  5. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Their starch breaks down during simmering, giving the soup body and a thicker texture.
Corn flour
Its starch swells as it heats, thickening the liquid to a cream-like consistency.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a softer, rounder flavour to the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel when stirred in at the end.
Stock
Provides the savoury liquid base that the other ingredients cook in.

The step that matters

Thickening with corn flour. Corn flour should be whisked smoothly into the milk or soup before heating, otherwise it clumps. It needs to simmer briefly so the starch swells fully, thickens the soup, and loses its raw floury taste.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, potato, milk, corn, flour, butter. 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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