Name: Potato Soup
Ingredients: 5 large potatoes; 15 cents worth of salt pork; 1 large onion; 2 quarts water; milk (to taste); butter (to taste); pepper (to taste); coarse sea salt (to taste)

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

Boil the potatoes, salt pork, and onion in 2 quarts of water until the potatoes are tender.
Remove the potatoes and pass them through a ricer.
Return the riced potatoes to the pot with the cooking water.
Add milk, butter, pepper, and salt 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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,668 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

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 base that thickens the soup as it is riced.
Salt pork: Adds savory, fatty flavor to the cooking water as it simmers.
Onion: Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the broth as it cooks.
Milk: Adds creaminess and richness to the riced potato base.
Butter: Adds fat, richness, and a smooth mouthfeel to the finished soup.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Tomatofits about as well
Onionthe original
Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pork, 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.