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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made with grated potatoes, onion, parsley, milk, butter, and corn starch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Potato Soup

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 ↓

Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the potatoes

  1. Parboil the grated potatoes in boiling water for 10 minutes, then drain.

  2. Add the potatoes to 2 quarts of boiling water with the sliced onion and cook for 1 hour, replenishing water as needed.

  3. Strain the mixture through a fine colander.

Finish the soup

  1. Season with salt, pepper, and parsley, then reheat until bubbling.

  2. Stir in the butter and corn starch mixture, bring to a boil, then add the milk and serve.

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. 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. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

Potatoes
Starch and fibre give the soup its body and a thick, smooth texture after straining.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma to the cooking water, flavouring the soup throughout.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavour and a silkier mouthfeel in the finished soup.
Milk or cream
Adds richness and creaminess, softening the flavour of the potatoes.
Corn starch
Thickens the soup when heated to a boil, giving it a smoother, heavier consistency.

The step that matters

Thickening with the corn starch mixture. Corn starch must reach a boil to thicken fully, and it should be mixed with cold milk first so it does not clump. Add the milk after thickening, since prolonged boiling can make dairy separate or scorch.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, parsley, milk, butter, corn, sugar, 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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