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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made from potatoes, onion, celery, milk, egg, butter, salt, and pepper.

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

Cook the base

  1. Cook the potatoes, onion, and celery until the potatoes fall apart.

  2. Remove the onion and celery, then mash the potatoes finely.

Finish the soup

  1. Pour in enough boiling milk to achieve a creamy consistency.

  2. Beat the egg and mix it with the butter.

  3. Strain the soup into this mixture.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

  5. Stir well.

  6. Serve immediately.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  4. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 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
Break down when cooked and thicken the soup into a smooth, body-rich texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, producing the creamy consistency.
Egg
Beaten into the butter and stirred in, it adds richness and helps bind the soup.
Butter
Adds fat, which gives a rounder, richer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Pour in the boiling milk gradually. Adding boiling milk to the mashed potato base helps it blend smoothly; adding it all at once can thin the soup unevenly. Stirring well keeps the texture creamy.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, celery, milk, egg, butter, 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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