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Cream of Potato Soup

A creamy soup made with butter, onion, potatoes, milk, flour, and seasonings, finished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Cream of Potato Soup

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cream of Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, scald the milk with the sliced onion.

  2. Gradually add the hot riced or mashed potatoes to the milk mixture.

Thicken and season

  1. In a separate bowl, mix the flour with a little milk to make a smooth paste.

  2. Add the paste to the soup.

  3. Season with salt, celery salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  4. Simmer until thickened.

Finish

  1. Strain the soup.

  2. Stir in the chopped parsley 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.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the bulk and body that give the soup its thick, creamy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base and adds richness and a creamy mouthfeel.
Flour
Starch that thickens the soup as it simmers.
Onion
Infuses the milk with savory, aromatic flavor.

The step that matters

Mixing the flour into a smooth paste. Flour clumps when added dry or to hot liquid. Blending it with a little cold milk first disperses the starch evenly, so it thickens the soup smoothly without lumps.

Swap the onion

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

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

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