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
Prepare the stock
Boil the shank of beef for 2 days, then strain into a crock and let it stand.
Remove the fat that rises to the top before making the soup.
Make the soup
Heat 2 tablespoons of the beef fat in a soup pot and fry the sliced onions until brown.
Add half of the beef stock to the pot.
Stir in the nicely mashed potatoes until the soup reaches the thickness of thick cream.
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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Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,052 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef shank
- Long simmering releases flavour and gelatin into the stock, giving the soup body.
- Onions
- Frying until brown builds sweetness and savoury depth in the soup base.
- Beef fat
- Frying the onions in fat carries flavour and helps them brown.
- Mashed potatoes
- Starch thickens the stock, giving the soup its creamy consistency.
The step that matters
Stirring in the mashed potatoes. Potato starch thickens quickly as it mixes into hot liquid. Adding it gradually and stopping at thick cream avoids a gluey or overly heavy texture.
“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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