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Potato Soup

A hearty soup of boiled potatoes, onions, and meat stock, served with fried bread croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 the vegetables

  1. Peel the potatoes and onions.

  2. Boil them in a little water until nearly done.

  3. Strain the potatoes and onions.

Make the soup

  1. Add them to the meat stock.

  2. Finish cooking in the stock with the celery tied in a piece of muslin.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. When the vegetables are tender, rub the soup through a fine sieve.

  5. Return it to the saucepan to heat.

Make the croutons and serve

  1. Slice the stale bread and cut it into dice.

  2. Fry in the butter until golden brown.

  3. Serve the soup with the croutons in a small dish.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  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
Thicken the soup as they break down, giving it body and a smooth texture.
Meat stock
Forms the liquid base and carries the flavour of the whole soup.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth as they soften in the stock.
Butter
Browns the bread croutons, adding richness and a golden colour.
Stale bread
Dried bread holds its shape when fried, giving crisp contrast to the smooth soup.

The step that matters

Rub the soup through a fine sieve. Sieving breaks down the softened potatoes and onions into a smooth purée. If the vegetables are not fully tender, they will not pass through cleanly and the soup stays grainy.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, meat, onion, butter, bread, 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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