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
Boil the salt pork in the water for 1.5 hours.
Remove the pork and set aside.
Peel and slice the potatoes, then soak them in cold water for 30 minutes.
Make the soup
Add the potatoes and chopped onions to the pot, cover, and boil for 45 minutes, stirring often.
Beat the butter and cream (or milk) with the egg in a separate bowl.
Carefully add the mixture to the pot a little at a time, stirring while it heats to a boil.
Serve hot.
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.
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + porktop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,668 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Onion + porktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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 during boiling, thickening the broth and giving the soup body.
- Egg
- Combined with cream, it enriches the soup and adds body when stirred in.
- Cream or milk
- Adds richness and creaminess to the broth.
- Butter
- Adds fat, richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the finished soup.
- Salt pork
- Flavours the water as it boils, giving the broth its savoury base.
The step that matters
Adding the egg and cream mixture. Adding the cold egg mixture all at once can curdle it. Adding it a little at a time while stirring, and not letting it boil hard, helps keep it smooth.
Swap the onion
The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, pork, butter, cream, egg):
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
- Onionthe original
- Leekfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pork, butter, cream, egg. 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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