Name: Potato Soup
Ingredients: 2 pounds potatoes; 2 or 3 sticks celery; 1 onion; 2 ounces butter; 1 quart meat stock; ½ cup milk; pepper; coarse sea salt

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

Cut the bacon and vegetables into slices.
Fry them in melted butter.
Add the stock and salt, bring to a boil, and simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours.
Rub through a fine sieve and return to a rinsed pan.
Sprinkle in the groult and cook until the grain is clear, about 7 to 10 minutes.
Serve with diced fried bread.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,047 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

Swap the celery

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

Thymefits better
Garlicfits better
Parsleyfits about as well
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, butter, meat, milk, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.