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Soup

White Soup

A creamy soup made from potatoes, celery, onions, milk, and water, seasoned with salt, pepper, and seaweed.

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

White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Parboil and slice the potatoes.

  2. Scald and slice the onions.

  3. Wash the celery and cut it into small pieces.

Make the soup

  1. Put the potatoes, onions, celery, and water into a pan and bring to a boil.

  2. Add salt and pepper, skim, and simmer until thick and pulpy.

  3. Stir in the milk and sprinkle in the coralline or rizine.

  4. Cook for a few minutes, then dilute with more hot water.

  5. Boil again for a short time and serve.

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 + 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. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Potatoes
Break down during simmering to give the soup its thick, pulpy body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a soft, rounded richness to the finished soup.
Celery
Contributes a mild, savoury aroma and fresh vegetable flavour to the base.
Onions
Provide sweetness and aromatic depth as they soften in the broth.
Coralline or rizine
Thickens the soup as it cooks, adding body along with the milk.

The step that matters

Add the milk and coralline or rizine, then boil briefly. Boiling milk for too long can scorch it and cause it to separate or taste cooked-off, so the milk should be stirred in and heated gently just until hot and well combined.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, celery, 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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