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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made from boiled potatoes, onion, milk, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil the potatoes and onion together until done.

  2. Drain, shake dry, and mash the potatoes.

Make the soup

  1. Add hot milk to the mashed potatoes and strain the mixture.

  2. Melt butter in a saucepan, add flour, then slowly mix in the hot potato mixture.

  3. Allow to boil thoroughly and serve.

Variations

  1. For variation, add chopped parsley, celery, or celery salt.

  2. For a richer soup, stir in a beaten egg just before serving, but do not boil after adding.

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

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the main body of the soup and thicken it when mashed.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and creamy texture of the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour and carries the flour for thickening.
Flour
Thickens the soup into a smooth, body-rich consistency when cooked in butter.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma and flavour to the soup base.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten egg. Egg proteins set when heated and can curdle or turn grainy if the soup boils after it is stirred in, so the soup should only be kept hot, not boiled.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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