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Irish Potato Soup

A creamy soup made from boiled potatoes, onion, herbs, salt, pepper, milk, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Irish Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the potatoes.

  2. Boil the potatoes with the onion, herbs, salt, and pepper until tender.

Finish the soup

  1. Press the mixture through a colander.

  2. Thin the soup with rich milk.

  3. Add a lump of butter.

  4. Season to taste.

  5. Heat well before serving hot.

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.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 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
Break down during boiling to give the soup its body and thick, smooth texture.
Rich milk
Adds moisture and richness, thinning the puréed soup to a smooth consistency.
Butter
Adds fat for a rounder, silkier mouthfeel and richer flavour.
Onion
Contributes savoury aromatic flavour that deepens during boiling.

The step that matters

Press the mixture through a colander. Pressing the cooked potatoes and onion breaks them into fine particles for a smooth texture; leftover lumps or skins will make the soup grainy.

Swap the onion

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

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

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