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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made with potatoes, onions, celery, butter, milk, and macaroni.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Wash the potatoes, peel them, and slice them, then place the sliced potatoes in cold water.

  2. Peel the onion and slice it.

  3. Chop the celery.

Make the soup

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the sliced potatoes, sliced onion, and chopped celery to the saucepan and stir over medium heat for a few minutes without browning.

  3. Add the boiling water and a little salt to the saucepan and cook until the vegetables are soft.

  4. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

  5. Rinse the saucepan and pour the soup back into it.

  6. Add enough hot milk to achieve a consistency similar to thick cream and let the soup reboil.

  7. Season to taste.

Add the macaroni and serve

  1. Boil the macaroni in plenty of salted water until just tender, then drain it.

  2. Cut the macaroni into 1-inch lengths just before serving.

  3. Add the macaroni to the soup 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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Break down when cooked to thicken the soup and give it body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and liquid, giving the soup a smooth, rich body.
Butter or good dripping
Fat for gently softening the vegetables and carrying flavor.
Spanish onion
Adds savory aroma and flavor base as it softens.
Celery
Contributes aromatic, savory flavor to the soup base.
Macaroni
Provides firm pasta pieces that contrast with the smooth soup.

The step that matters

Stir without browning. Cooking the butter and vegetables gently over medium heat softens them and builds flavor. If they brown, the soup takes on bitter, toasted notes that do not suit a pale, delicate soup.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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