Why it works: Onion and potato 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
Make the stock
Place the bones or dripping in a pot with enough cold water for the desired quantity.
Add the onions and bring to a boil to create a good stock.
Prepare the potatoes
In a separate saucepan, boil the scraped potatoes until soft.
Drain the potatoes, then mash or bruise them to your preference.
Season the mashed potatoes with pepper and salt.
Combine and serve
Strain the stock from the bones and add the mashed potatoes to the stock.
Boil everything together for 1 hour.
If desired, stir in the grated carrot before serving.
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.
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Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,107 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Scraped potatoes
- Break down when boiled and mashed to thicken the soup and give it body.
- Bones or dripping
- Provide fat and savory flavor that carry through into the stock.
- Onions
- Add savory, aromatic flavor to the stock as it simmers.
The step that matters
Boiling everything together for 1 hour. Long simmering lets the starch from the mashed potatoes thicken the liquid and blends the stock's flavors. Boiling too hard can cause the potatoes to break down unevenly and cloud the soup.
Swap the carrot
The recipe marks carrot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, onion, potato, pepper):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Carrotthe original
- Chivefits about as well
- Mustardfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, onion, potato, 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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