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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made from mashed potatoes, milk, butter, egg, and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Potato Soup

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. In a bowl, mash the boiled potatoes.

  2. Add the butter while mashing.

  3. Gradually pour in the boiling milk and stir well.

  4. Strain the mixture through a sieve and heat it again.

Serve

  1. Beat the egg and place it in a tureen.

  2. Pour the hot soup over the egg when ready to 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy body that thickens the soup and gives it a smooth, mashed texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the soup a silky mouthfeel and rounded flavor.
Milk
Supplies liquid and creaminess, softening the potato into a smooth, pourable soup.
Egg
Beaten in the tureen, the hot soup poured over it gently enriches and thickens the soup.

The step that matters

Pour the hot soup over the egg when ready to serve. The beaten egg must be warmed gradually by the hot soup rather than cooked directly. Pouring it in slowly while whisking helps the egg blend smoothly and thicken without curdling or scrambling.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, pepper, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, pepper, egg. 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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