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Potato Soup

A creamy potato soup made with potatoes, onion, water, butter, cayenne pepper, salt, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

  1. Peel and slice the potatoes and onion.

Cook and mash

  1. Boil them in 3 pints of water until tender.

  2. Pulp the mixture through a colander.

Season and finish

  1. Add butter, cayenne pepper, and salt.

  2. Just before serving, stir in the cream without boiling.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Starch gives the soup its body and thick, smooth texture once pulped.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel, and softens the heat of the cayenne.
Butter
Adds fat for a rounder, richer flavor and smoother mouthfeel.
Onion
Contributes savory aroma and sweetness as it cooks into the soup.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cream without boiling. Cream can curdle or separate when it boils, and boiling dulls its silky texture and fresh dairy flavor. Adding it just before serving and keeping the soup hot but not boiling keeps it smooth and rich.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

More potato soup recipes

Irish 12Sweet 9Cream 8Creamy 8Swiss 6Scotch 5 See all 473 →

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