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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made with potatoes, onions, celery, stock, milk, and sago.

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

  1. Wash, peel, and slice the potatoes and onions.

  2. Wash and slice the celery.

Cook the soup

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, then add the vegetables and cook for 5 minutes.

  2. Add the stock, bring to a boil, then simmer until the vegetables are tender.

  3. Rub the mixture through a sieve or colander back into the saucepan.

  4. Stir in the milk and sago, and simmer until clear.

  5. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

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. Butter + milktop 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 simmered and rubbed through a sieve, thickening the soup and giving it body.
Butter or dripping
Provides fat for softening the vegetables and adds richness to the soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a softer, rounder flavour to the finished soup.
Sago
Thickens the liquid as it simmers and turns it clear and smooth-textured.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a sieve or colander. Pushing the cooked vegetables through a sieve breaks down their cell walls into a smooth purée. Skipping or rushing this leaves the soup lumpy and thin in texture.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, butter, 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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