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Potato Soup Maigre

A simple potato soup made with potatoes, water, butter, milk, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Potato Soup Maigre

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and chop the potatoes.

  2. In a large pot, combine the potatoes, water, salt, sugar, parsley, thyme, and bay leaf.

Cook the soup

  1. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the potatoes are soft and the water has reduced by half.

  2. Remove the potatoes and herbs, and keep them warm.

Finish and serve

  1. Puree the soup through a fine sieve or tammy.

  2. Return the soup to the pot, add butter and milk, and bring to a boil before serving.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

What each ingredient does

Large mealy potatoes
Starch that breaks down during simmering to give the soup its body and thickness.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the soup a smoother mouthfeel and rounder flavor.
Milk
Adds creaminess and dairy richness, softening the flavor of the potato base.

The step that matters

Pureeing through a fine sieve or tammy. Cooked potato cells break down into a smooth, starchy mass that can turn gluey if overworked. Pressing gently through a fine sieve keeps the texture silky rather than pasty.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, sugar, thyme, butter, milk. 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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