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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made from boiled potatoes, onion, butter, milk, and cream, seasoned with salt, white pepper, and celery salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 the potatoes

  1. Peel the potatoes and onion.

  2. Boil them in salted water until thoroughly cooked.

  3. Drain the potatoes and onion.

  4. Mash them until very smooth.

Make the soup

  1. Add white pepper and celery salt to taste, along with the butter.

  2. Heat the milk in a separate pot until nearly boiling.

  3. Slowly pour the hot milk over the potato mixture.

  4. Add the rich cream.

  5. Return the mixture to the fire and heat until boiling hot.

  6. Strain the soup.

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

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

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

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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 when mashed smooth.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich mouthfeel and smooth flavor.
Milk
Forms the liquid base, giving the soup its creamy, mild character.
Rich cream
Adds fat that makes the finished soup richer and silkier.
Onion
Contributes savory aromatic flavor to the soup base.

The step that matters

Pour the hot milk slowly over the potato mixture. Adding hot milk gradually lets the potato blend into a smooth, even mixture instead of clumping or thinning unevenly, because the starch disperses more easily when the liquid is added in a controlled stream.

Swap the white pepper

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

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

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