Why it works: Potato and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 851 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓
Potato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Bring 1 gallon of water to a boil in a large pot.
Add 6 chopped potatoes and 1 cup of rice.
Whisk together 1 egg-sized lump of butter and 1 tablespoon of flour until smooth.
Stir the butter and flour mixture into the pot.
Boil for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
Just before serving, stir in 1 cup of sweet cream.
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.
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Potato + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together851 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Break down during boiling to give the soup body and a thick, starchy texture.
- Rice
- Releases starch as it cooks, helping thicken the soup.
- Butter and flour
- Flour mixed with butter forms a roux-style thickener that smooths out the broth.
- Sweet cream
- Added at the end to enrich the soup with fat and a mild, creamy richness.
The step that matters
Stirring the butter and flour into the pot. Flour clumps if dropped in dry or added without being whisked smooth with the butter first. Whisking it smooth before adding lets it disperse evenly and thicken the soup without lumps.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, egg, butter, flour, cream):
- Leekfits better
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, egg, butter, flour, cream. 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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