Skip to main content
Main

Potato Soup No. I

A creamy potato soup made with potatoes, milk, water, butter, flour, onion, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 No. I

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the potatoes

  1. Wash and peel the potatoes, then cook them in boiling salted water until tender.

  2. Drain and mash the potatoes in the same kettle.

  3. Add hot water, salt, pepper, and celery salt to the mashed potatoes.

Make the soup

  1. Scald the milk and cook the onion in it, then remove the onion.

  2. Add the scalded milk to the soup.

  3. Mix the flour with a little cold water and stir it into the boiling soup.

  4. Let the soup boil for three to four minutes, stirring constantly.

  5. Add the butter just before removing from heat; the butter can be omitted if desired.

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

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

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Starch that breaks down into a thick, creamy body when mashed.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess, softening the soup's flavour and texture.
Flour
Thickens the soup as its starch swells when boiled with liquid.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother mouthfeel and rounder flavour.

The step that matters

Boiling after adding the flour. Flour thickens only when its starch is heated in liquid, so the soup must boil while stirred constantly. Stirring prevents lumps from forming as the starch swells.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, pepper, onion, 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.

More potato soup recipes

Irish 12Sweet 9Cream 8Creamy 8Swiss 6Scotch 5 See all 473 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipes