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Potato Soup

A hearty soup made with sliced potatoes, stock, onions, parsley, and optional cream and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

Make the soup

  1. In a saucepan, combine sliced potatoes, stock (or water and bones), onions, parsley, pepper, and salt.

  2. Simmer for 3-4 hours.

  3. Strain the mixture through a sieve.

  4. Return the strained soup to the fire and simmer for another 30 minutes until thick.

Finish and serve

  1. For a richer flavor, stir in cream and butter just before serving.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  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 during long simmering to give the soup body and thickness.
Stock
Provides the liquid base and savory depth for the soup.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma as they soften in the simmering liquid.
Cream
Adds fat and a smoother, richer mouthfeel when stirred in at the end.
Butter
Adds fat and a rounded, rich flavor to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Returning the strained soup to the heat. Simmering the strained soup reduces its water content and concentrates it, so it thickens. Cooking too long or too hard can make it overly reduced, so watch its thickness rather than the clock alone.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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