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Browned Potato Soup

A potato soup made by browning potatoes and onion, then simmering with water, milk, eggs, butter, parsley, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Browned Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Fry and cook the potatoes

  1. Heat the dripping in a round-bottomed saucepan.

  2. Fry the potatoes and onion until golden brown.

  3. Drain the potatoes and onion.

  4. Add them to the boiling water and cook until soft.

  5. Rub the mixture through a colander back into the kettle with the cooking water.

  6. Add the parsley.

  7. Stir to a bubbling boil.

  8. Season with pepper and salt.

Finish the soup

  1. Heat the milk in another saucepan.

  2. Melt the butter in the milk.

  3. Add the beaten eggs to the milk.

  4. Stir for 1 minute.

  5. Remove the soup kettle from the heat.

  6. Pour in the milk and egg mixture.

  7. If the soup is not thick enough, roll the butter in 1 tablespoon flour. Stir it directly into the soup kettle.

  8. Serve immediately.

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.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Break down into a smooth, starchy body that gives the soup its main thickness and substance.
Eggs
Set when stirred into the hot milk, adding richness and thickening the soup gently.
Milk
Carries the egg and butter into the soup, adding creaminess and softness to the texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the milk a smoother, silkier mouthfeel.
Onion
Browns during frying to add savoury, toasted flavour to the soup base.

The step that matters

Adding the egg and milk mixture. Eggs can curdle or scramble if they meet very hot liquid too abruptly. Removing the kettle from the heat before pouring in the milk and egg mixture lets the eggs thicken gently instead of setting in lumps.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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