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Potato Soup

A creamy potato soup with onions, butter, flour, stock, milk, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Potato Soup

Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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

Prepare the base

  1. Finely slice the onion.

  2. Place the sliced onion in a saucepan with the butter, cover, and cook on low heat for 15 minutes, stirring constantly.

  3. Add the sliced potatoes and weak stock to the saucepan.

  4. Stir well and bring to a boil.

  5. Skim off any foam and continue boiling until the potatoes are tender.

Finish the soup

  1. Pass the mixture through a sieve to create a smooth soup.

  2. Season with pepper and salt to taste.

  3. Return the soup to the saucepan and bring it back to a boil.

  4. Mix the flour with the milk or cream.

  5. Stir this mixture into the soup.

  6. Just before serving, add the chopped parsley.

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

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

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 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
Break down when boiled to give the soup its body and thickness.
Butter
Softens the onion gently and carries flavour into the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup slightly when stirred in with the milk or cream.
Milk or cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Return the soup to a boil after adding the flour mixture. Flour thickens only when heated enough for its starch to swell. Bringing the soup back to a boil after stirring in the flour and milk or cream lets it thicken fully, while stirring prevents lumps from forming.

Swap the onion

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

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

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