Name: Potato Soup
Ingredients: bones of cold roast meat or a marrow bone or 1 piece of dripping; cold water; potatoes, peeled and soaked in boiling water; 1 or 2 onions, chopped; pepper; coarse sea salt

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

bones of cold roast meat or a marrow bone or 1 piece of dripping
cold water
potatoes, peeled and soaked in boiling water
1 or 2 onions, chopped
pepper
coarse sea salt

Directions

Place the bones or dripping in a pot with enough cold water for the desired quantity.
Bring to a boil for a short time.
Add the soaked potatoes and chopped onions.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Boil for 30 minutes until some potatoes are melted and others are nearly whole.

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 + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together786 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,364 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes: Starch that partly breaks down into the soup, thickening it while leaving some pieces whole.
Bones of cold roast meat or marrow bone or dripping: Releases flavour and fat into the water, giving the broth its savoury base.
Onions: Adds aromatic sweetness and savoury depth to the broth.