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Cream of Potato Soup

A creamy soup made from mashed potatoes, milk, egg yolks, cream, salt, and onion juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cream of 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 ↓

Cream of Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Cook the potatoes until soft, then mash them.

  2. Strain the mashed potatoes with the heated milk.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the beaten egg yolks, salt, cream, and onion juice.

  2. Boil the mixture until it thickens, stirring constantly.

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 + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  5. Cream + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Cream and onion barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starch and body that give the soup its base texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the soup as they set with heat and add richness.
Milk
Adds liquid and creaminess, carrying the mashed potato into a smooth soup.
Cream
Adds fat for a richer mouthfeel and smoother texture.

The step that matters

Boiling the mixture after adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken by coagulating as they heat, but if the mixture overheats or boils too hard after they go in, the proteins can curdle and turn grainy. Stirring constantly spreads the heat evenly and helps prevent lumps.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, 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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