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Potato Soup

A hearty potato soup made with thick condensed milk, beef dripping, sago, cloves, bay leaves, and onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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

  1. Peel the potatoes.

  2. Wash the potatoes.

  3. Slice the potatoes.

  4. Chop the onions.

Make the soup

  1. Heat the dripping in a pan until hot and a blue vapor rises.

  2. Stir in the flour without browning it.

  3. Add the water or stock.

  4. Add the potatoes.

  5. Add the milk.

  6. Add the onions.

  7. Add the cloves.

  8. Add the bay leaves.

  9. Season with pepper and salt.

  10. Simmer for one hour.

  11. Add the sago.

  12. Simmer for another fifteen minutes.

Strain and serve

  1. Pour the mixture through a wire sieve into a bowl.

  2. Remove the cloves and bay leaves.

  3. Rub the remaining mixture through with a wooden spoon.

  4. Re-boil the mixture.

  5. Serve the soup.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Clove + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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 thicken the soup and give it body.
Flour
Cooked into the hot dripping to form a roux that thickens the soup.
Dripping
Fat that carries the onion and flour and adds savoury richness.
Condensed milk
Adds creaminess and sweetness to the soup.
Sago
Added late to thicken the soup further as it cooks.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour without browning it. Flour cooked in hot fat forms a roux that thickens the soup. If it browns, the flavour turns bitter and the colour darkens, and the starch loses much of its thickening power.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against condensed milk, potato, pepper, flour, clove. 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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