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Flemish Soup

A creamy soup of onions, celery, and potatoes simmered in broth and finished with boiled cream.

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

Why it works: Onion and potato 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 ↓

Flemish Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter with a little stock over low heat.

  2. Add the onions, celery, and potatoes; cook slowly for 30 minutes.

  3. Fill the pan with good broth and let it simmer for another 30 minutes, or until the potatoes dissolve.

  4. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

  5. Stir in the boiled cream and keep the soup hot until served.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

Onions
Soften and add sweetness and body to the soup base as they cook slowly.
Potatoes
Break down during simmering to thicken the soup and give it a smooth, creamy body.
Celery
Contributes savory, aromatic flavor to the soup base.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor as the vegetables cook gently.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Simmering until the potatoes dissolve. Potatoes must break down fully to thicken the soup naturally. If the heat is too high or the simmer is too brief, pieces remain and the texture turns grainy after straining.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

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