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Swiss Potato Soup

A creamy soup of potatoes, turnip, onions, butter, flour, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Swiss 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 ↓

Swiss Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash, peel, and cut the potatoes in half.

  2. Wash, peel, and slice the turnip into ¼ inch slices.

  3. Parboil the potatoes and turnips together for 10 minutes, then drain.

Make the soup

  1. Add the sliced onions and 3 cups of boiling water, cooking until the vegetables are soft.

  2. Drain again, reserving the water, and rub the vegetables through a sieve.

  3. Add the reserved water and milk, then reheat.

  4. Bind the soup with the butter and flour cooked together.

  5. Season with salt and pepper.

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. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Turnip + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Potato + turniptop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together562 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Break down when sieved to give the soup its body and thickness.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a smooth, rich texture to the soup.
Butter and flour
Cooked together to form a roux that thickens and binds the soup.
Onions
Add savory, aromatic flavor as they soften in the water.

The step that matters

Binding with butter and flour. Flour must be cooked with the butter to form a roux; cooking it removes its raw taste and lets it thicken the soup smoothly without lumps.

Swap the turnip

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, pepper, onion, butter, flour. 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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