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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made with potatoes, onion, butter, milk, egg, salt, baking powder, and a stiff flour batter.

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 the soup

  1. Slice the potatoes and onion.

  2. Add them to 2 quarts of water and cook until tender.

Make and cook the dumplings

  1. Stir in the butter, sweet milk, egg, salt, and baking powder.

  2. Add enough flour to make a stiff batter.

  3. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the soup.

  4. Cook for 15 minutes, keeping covered until done.

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Flour
Forms a stiff batter that sets into soft dumplings when cooked in the soup.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps the dumplings hold their shape.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the dumplings rise and turn light.
Potatoes
Soften in the water to thicken and give the soup its body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the soup a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Keep the soup covered while the dumplings cook. Trapped steam cooks the tops of the dumplings through, so they set evenly instead of staying gummy underneath. Lifting the lid lets heat and steam escape and can leave them dense.

Swap the onion

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

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

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