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Potato Soup

A creamy potato soup made with potatoes, onions, celery, stock, milk, butter, flour, mace, cayenne, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 potatoes

  1. Peel and thinly slice the potatoes.

  2. Boil the potatoes in 1 quart of white stock with 1 onion and the finely shredded white part of the celery until the potatoes are very soft.

  3. Pass the cooked potatoes through a sieve.

Make the milk base

  1. In a separate saucepan, boil the milk with the other onion, a dust of cayenne pepper, and the blade of mace until well flavored.

  2. Strain the milk and return it to the saucepan.

  3. Rub the butter into the flour.

  4. Thicken the milk with the flour and butter mixture.

Combine and serve

  1. Mix the sieved potatoes with the thickened milk.

  2. Season with salt.

  3. Bring to a boil.

  4. Stir in the chopped parsley just before serving.

  5. Pour into a hot tureen 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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Break down when boiled and sieved to give the soup its body and smooth texture.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base that carries the flavour of the onion and mace.
Flour
Thickens the milk with the butter so the soup becomes smooth and full-bodied.
Butter
Combines with the flour to form a roux that adds richness and helps thicken the milk.
White stock
Cooks the potatoes and adds savoury depth to the soup base.

The step that matters

Thickening the milk with the flour and butter. Flour must be fully worked into the butter and whisked into the hot milk, otherwise it clumps and the soup turns lumpy instead of smooth. Simmering lets the starch swell and thicken properly.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, celery, flour, 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.

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