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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made from potatoes, onions, turnip, celery, butter, flour, spices, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Potato Soup

Why it works: Turnip and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,418 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the soup base

  1. Parboil the potatoes for 5 minutes, then drain.

  2. Boil the potatoes again with 3 cups of boiling water, 1 tablespoon of salt, sliced onions, cubed turnip, and chopped celery for 1.5 hours until very soft.

  3. Mash the mixture through a sieve.

Thicken and finish

  1. In a separate pan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter, then add 2 tablespoons of flour, mace or nutmeg, black pepper, and 1 teaspoon of salt.

  2. Stir this mixture into the soup and boil for 5 minutes.

  3. Add 2 cups of hot cream or milk and adjust seasoning if needed, then garnish with chopped parsley.

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. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

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 soft, starchy body that gives the soup its main texture.
Flour
Thickens the butter-based roux, giving the soup body when stirred in.
Butter
Carries the flour in the roux and adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Cream or milk
Adds richness and smoothness, softening the soup's flavour and texture.
Onions
Break down during long simmering to add sweetness and savoury depth.

The step that matters

Stirring the roux into the soup. Flour needs to be cooked in fat before liquid is added, or it stays raw-tasting and can clump. Stirring the roux in thoroughly and simmering it for 5 minutes lets the starch swell evenly and thicken the soup smoothly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, turnip, celery, butter, flour, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, turnip, celery, butter, flour, 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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