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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made with boiled potatoes, milk, onion, flour, butter, salt, and white pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

Prepare

  1. Peel and boil the potatoes until tender.

  2. In a double boiler, heat the milk with the onion.

Make the soup

  1. Mash the cooked potatoes and pour the boiling milk over them, removing the onion.

  2. Return the mixture to the double boiler.

  3. Combine the salt, white pepper, flour, and butter, then add to the soup.

  4. Let it boil for 6 to 8 minutes, then strain into a hot dish and serve immediately.

  5. Adjust salt and pepper to taste if desired.

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

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

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

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the body of the soup and thicken it as they break down when mashed.
Milk
Supplies the liquid base and creamy texture of the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup by binding with the liquid as it heats.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Heating the milk gently in the double boiler. Milk can scorch or form a skin when heated too fast. A double boiler keeps it below a hard boil, protecting its texture and flavor. Flour added to a boiling soup can also clump if not well combined first.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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