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Soup

Velvet Potato Soup

A creamy potato soup made with potatoes, onion, celery, butter, salt, cream, and cornstarch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Velvet Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Boil the potatoes, onion, and celery until tender.

  2. Run the mixture through a fine sieve or potato ricer.

  3. Add the butter and salt, and let it boil for a few minutes.

Thicken and finish

  1. Blend the cream and cornstarch together.

  2. Stir the mixture into the soup.

  3. Let it boil again before serving.

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. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Break down when boiled and sieved to give the soup its smooth, body-rich texture.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Cornstarch
Thickens the soup as it boils, giving it a velvety consistency.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavor and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boil again after adding the cornstarch mixture. Cornstarch only thickens fully when it reaches a boil, so the soup must come back to a boil after the cream is stirred in. Too little heat leaves it thin and possibly starchy-tasting.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, butter, cream. 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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