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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made with parboiled potatoes, leeks or onions, butter, water, milk, and a thickening agent.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Potato Soup

Why it works: Potato and leek work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan.

  2. Cut the leeks or onions into very small pieces.

  3. If using leeks, remove the green tops, peel, wash, and slice them.

Make the soup

  1. Add the vegetables to the boiling water along with the butter, salt, and pepper.

  2. Simmer gently for about 1 hour until the vegetables are soft.

  3. Rub the soup through a sieve or colander back into the saucepan.

  4. Add the milk and thickening agent, and boil for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently.

  5. Serve 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.

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 + leektop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Leek + semolinatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Break down when simmered and rubbed through a sieve to give the soup body.
Leeks or onions
Soften during simmering and build the savory flavour base of the soup.
Butter or clarified dripping
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and giving a smooth mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mildness, softening the savoury flavour of the soup.
Semolina, hominy, or sago
Starch that thickens the soup as it boils with the milk.

The step that matters

Boiling the milk and thickening agent. Starch from semolina, hominy, or sago needs to boil to swell and thicken the liquid, while stirring prevents scorching and lumps. Milk can scorch or curdle if it boils too hard on the base of the pan.

Swap the leek

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Leekthe original

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