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Soup

Milk Soup

A potato and sago soup made with milk, clarified fat, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Milk Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Pare the potatoes thinly and place them in a saucepan covered with cold water.

  2. Heat the saucepan until the water boils, then pour away the water.

  3. Add the clarified fat or dripping and stir until melted.

  4. Add the salt and pepper, and boil slowly for 30 minutes.

Make the soup

  1. Place a colander over a large basin and pour the contents through it, rubbing the potatoes with a spoon.

  2. Return the mixture to the saucepan, add the milk, and sprinkle in the sago while stirring continuously.

  3. Return the pan to the heat and stir until boiling, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

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.

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 + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  3. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Main body of the soup; rubbed through a sieve they thicken it and give it a smooth texture.
Seed-sago
Starch that thickens the soup as it heats, giving it body.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess, softening the flavour of the soup.
Clarified fat or dripping
Adds richness and flavour, and carries the seasoning through the potatoes.

The step that matters

Sprinkling in the sago. Sago must be added while stirring continuously, or the starch will clump in lumps instead of dispersing evenly and thickening the soup smoothly.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Tomatofits less well
  4. Carrotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, 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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