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Potato Soup

A hearty potato soup made with beef shank, onions, beef fat, and mashed potatoes for thickness.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Potato Soup

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

Make the broth

  1. Boil the shank of beef for two days.

  2. Strain the broth into a crock.

  3. Let the broth stand until the fat rises to the top.

  4. Remove the fat.

Finish the soup

  1. Heat 2 tablespoons of the beef fat in a soup pot.

  2. Fry the sliced onions until brown.

  3. Add half of the beef broth to the pot.

  4. Stir in the mashed potatoes until the soup reaches the thickness of thick cream.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Mashed potatoes
Thickens the broth into a creamy body as they break down and disperse.
Beef fat
Carries flavor and browns the onions, adding richness to the soup.
Onions
Browning in fat builds sweetness and savory depth in the soup.

The step that matters

Frying the onions until brown. Browning onions in fat develops sweet, savory flavors through the Maillard reaction and caramelization. Stopping too early leaves the soup tasting flat, while over-browning can make it bitter.

“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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