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Milk Soup

A potato and leek soup thickened with tapioca and enriched with milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and leek work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Milk Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the potatoes and leeks into quarters.

Cook and strain

  1. In a saucepan, combine the potatoes, leeks, 2 quarts of boiling water, butter, salt, and pepper.

  2. Boil for 1 hour.

  3. Rub the mixture through a colander back into the saucepan.

Finish

  1. Add the milk and sprinkle in the tapioca.

  2. Boil for an additional 15 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.

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 + leektop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Butter + milktop 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. Leek + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together965 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Break down when boiled and rubbed through, giving the soup its body and thickness.
Leeks
Add a mild onion-like aroma and flavor to the broth.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Tapioca
Starch that thickens the soup as it boils.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the soup.

The step that matters

Rubbing the mixture through a colander. Pressing the cooked potatoes and leeks through a colander breaks them into fine particles, which gives the soup a smooth texture. Skipping or rushing this step leaves lumps and fibrous pieces.

Swap the leek

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Leekthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, milk, 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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