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Potato Soup

A simple potato soup made with potatoes, onion, celery, butter, milk, and tapioca, served with fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Make the soup base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the potatoes, onion, and celery, stirring over gentle heat until the butter is mostly absorbed.

  3. Add the hot water and boil until the vegetables are tender.

  4. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve back into the saucepan.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the milk and bring to a boil.

  2. Sprinkle in the tapioca and boil for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly until clear.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve with fried bread cut into small dice.

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 cooked and sieved to give the soup its body and thickness.
Butter
Carries flavour and adds richness as the vegetables soften gently in it.
Tapioca
Thickens the liquid as it boils, becoming clear when its starch is fully cooked.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softness, rounding out the flavour of the soup.
Onion
Contributes sweetness and savoury aroma as it softens in the butter.

The step that matters

Boiling the tapioca. Tapioca must boil with constant stirring, because its starch settles on the bottom and can scorch, and it only thickens fully once cooked until clear.

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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