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Potato Soup a LA Crewe

A creamy potato soup with veal, celery, onion, and lemon, finished with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Potato Soup a LA Crewe

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Melt 3 ounces of butter in a large stewpan over medium heat.

  2. Add the sliced onion, celery, and veal.

  3. Cook gently for 20 minutes.

  4. Peel and slice the potatoes, then add them to the stewpan with the cooked vegetables and veal.

  5. Pour in 1 quart of water, the lemon rind, seasoning, and 2 quarts of milk.

  6. Simmer gently for 2 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.

Finish and serve

  1. Pass the soup through a fine sieve into a clean stewpan.

  2. Keep the soup hot in boiling water.

  3. Stir in ½ cup of cream.

  4. Adjust seasoning to taste.

  5. Serve with small croutons of fried bread.

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. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  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. Onion + celerytop 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
Break down during simmering to thicken the soup and give it body.
Milk
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy body to the soup.
Butter
Enriches flavour and fat content while the vegetables and veal begin to cook.
Cream
Stirred in at the end to add richness and a softer, silkier mouthfeel.
Veal
Contributes meaty flavour to the stock-like base of the soup.

The step that matters

Simmering for 2 hours with occasional stirring. Gentle heat over a long time lets the potatoes break down fully and the soup thicken evenly. Stirring prevents the milk and starches from scorching on the base of the pan, which would give a burnt taste.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, milk, onion, celery, veal, butter, lemon):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, onion, celery, veal, butter, lemon. 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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