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Potato Soup

A creamy potato soup made with corned‑beef water, cream, onions, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

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

Make the soup base

  1. Wash and peel the potatoes.

  2. Place the potatoes and onions in a saucepan with the corned-beef water.

  3. Boil for 1.5 hours until the potatoes fall apart.

  4. Pour the soup through a sieve and rub the potatoes through to a fine pulp.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the mixture to the saucepan and heat until very hot.

  2. Add the hot cream, salt, and pepper, whisk thoroughly.

  3. Pour into a tureen, add croutons, 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.

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. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Potato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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
Break down into a fine pulp that thickens the soup and gives it body.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aroma to the cooking liquid.
Rich cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the soup a smooth, silky mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Rubbing the potatoes through the sieve. Cooked potatoes turn gluey if overworked, but pressing them gently while still hot yields a fine, smooth pulp. Pressing too hard or letting them cool can leave lumps or a pasty texture.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Onionthe original
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits less well
  4. Carrotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, beef, cream, 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.

More potato soup recipes

Irish 12Sweet 9Cream 8Creamy 8Swiss 6Scotch 5 See all 473 →

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