Name: Potato Soup
Ingredients: 3 pints good stock; 1 quart cold water; 12 mealy potatoes; 1 onion; ½ cup rice; 2 tablespoons butter; Coarse sea salt to taste

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

Slice the potatoes.
Cover them with boiling water and cook for 10 minutes.
Drain the water.
Add the cold water and onion to the potatoes.
Boil until the potatoes are soft.
Pass the potatoes through a colander into the stock.

Finish the soup

Heat everything together and cook gently for 30 minutes.
Boil the rice in a small amount of water until soft.
Stir in the butter.
Add the rice to the soup and simmer for 5 minutes.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + ricetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together851 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Mealy potatoes: Break down when boiled and pressed, thickening the soup and giving it a smooth body.
Stock: Forms the savoury liquid base of the soup.
Rice: Softens and adds body, further thickening the soup.
Butter: Adds richness and a rounder mouthfeel to the finished soup.