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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made with potatoes, milk, butter, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Potato Soup

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Wash, peel, and cook the potatoes until soft.

  2. Drain the cooked potatoes.

  3. Mash the potatoes.

Make the milk mixture

  1. In a double boiler, cook the milk, hot water, parsley, celery, and onion for 15 minutes.

  2. Gradually add the hot milk mixture.

Thicken and season

  1. In a separate pan, cook the butter and flour until smooth and frothy.

  2. Slowly add the soup to the butter and flour mixture, stirring constantly.

  3. Finally, stir in the salt and white pepper.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the main body and starchy bulk that gives the soup its substance.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a soft, rich texture to the soup.
Flour
Thickens the liquid as its starch gelatinizes when heated with the liquid.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the flour blend smoothly into a roux.

The step that matters

Adding the liquid to the butter and flour. Flour must be cooked in fat until smooth and frothy, then liquid added slowly while stirring constantly. This disperses the starch evenly, preventing lumps and producing a smooth, evenly thickened soup.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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