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Potato Soup

A creamy potato soup made with milk, butter, onion, celery, and optional whipped cream.

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

Make the soup base

  1. In a pot, bring the milk to a boil with the onion and celery.

  2. Peel the potatoes and boil them for 30 minutes.

  3. Drain the water and mash the potatoes until fine and light.

  4. Add the boiling milk and butter to the mashed potatoes.

  5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  6. Rub the mixture through a strainer and serve immediately.

Finish and serve

  1. For an extra touch, add whipped cream to the soup in the tureen.

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. Celery + peppertop 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
Provide the starch that mashes into the body of the soup.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, loosening the mashed potato into a soup.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavour and a smoother mouthfeel.
Onion
Infuses the milk with savoury aroma as it heats.
Celery
Infuses the milk with a subtle vegetal aroma as it heats.

The step that matters

Mashing and adding the milk. Overworking hot potatoes releases excess starch and makes them gluey. Mash until fine and light, then add the boiling milk and butter gradually so the soup stays smooth rather than dense.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Garlicfits about as well
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

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