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Potato Soup

A hearty soup of potatoes, cabbage, onions, and egg yolk thickened with flour and sweet milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

  1. Bring the water to a boil in a kettle.

  2. Pare, wash, and slice the potatoes.

  3. Chop the onions.

  4. Finely cut the cabbage.

Make the soup

  1. Add the potatoes, onions, and cabbage to the boiling water and cook until tender.

  2. Mash the vegetables together until smooth, adding more water if needed.

  3. Beat the egg yolks in a bowl. Mix the beaten yolks with the milk and flour to form a smooth paste.

  4. Stir the paste into the boiling soup.

  5. Add butter, salt, and pepper to taste.

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. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

  5. Potato + cabbagetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together275 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Break down when mashed to give the soup its body and thickness.
Egg yolks
Enrich the soup and add richness and smoothness when combined with milk.
Flour
Thickens the milk and yolk mixture so it blends smoothly into the soup.
Sweet milk
Adds creaminess and softness, mellowing the soup's flavor.
Butter
Adds fat, richness, and a rounded flavor to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Stir the paste into the boiling soup. Flour and yolk mixed with milk can clump or curdle if added too fast or to a rapidly boiling liquid. Stirring constantly while adding the paste helps it disperse evenly and keeps the soup smooth.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

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