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
Make the soup
Melt the fat in a thick saucepan.
Add the peeled and sliced potatoes and onion, and fry for a few minutes.
Add the stock and seasoning.
Bring to a boil and simmer for one hour.
Rub the mixture through a sieve, add the milk, and bring to a boil again.
Serve
Serve very hot.
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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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Onion + milktop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,418 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness to the sieved soup.
- Onion
- Softens and adds savory aroma when fried in the fat.
- Stock
- Forms the liquid base that the potatoes cook in and dissolve into.
The step that matters
Rub the mixture through a sieve. Pressing the cooked potatoes and onion through a sieve breaks down their starch-rich cells into a smooth purée. Skipping or rushing this leaves lumps and a grainy texture.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, milk):
- Asparagusfits better
- Tomatofits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk. 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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