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White Soup

A creamy soup made from boiled potatoes, onions, and optional tomatoes, thickened with tapioca and finished with milk, butter, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook and strain

  1. Boil the potatoes, onions, and tomatoes in 2 quarts of water until soft.

  2. Rub the mixture through a sieve to create a smooth paste.

  3. Return the paste to the water, add the tapioca, and boil for 15 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Season with butter, pepper, and salt, then add the milk.

  2. Heat until hot and serve.

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. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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
Their starch breaks down when cooked, giving the soup body and a smooth, thick base.
Tapioca
Its starch swells when boiled, thickening the soup further.
Onions
Cooking softens them and adds mild sweetness and savory aroma to the soup.
Milk
Its fat and proteins add creaminess and a soft, rich mouthfeel.
Butter
Its fat adds richness and a rounded, mellow flavor to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Heat the soup after adding the milk. Milk proteins can scorch on the bottom of the pan or curdle when overheated, so warm it only until hot and keep stirring to keep the texture smooth.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, milk, butter, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

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