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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made from mashed potatoes, milk, butter, cream, egg yolks, onion, celery, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 potatoes

  1. Peel the potatoes.

  2. Boil the potatoes until thoroughly soft.

  3. Mash the potatoes until fine and light.

  4. Add the butter, salt, and pepper to the mashed potatoes.

Make the soup base

  1. In a separate pot, bring the milk with the onion and celery to a boil.

  2. Once boiling, remove the onion and celery from the milk.

  3. Stir the mashed potatoes into the milk.

Finish in the tureen

  1. Beat the egg yolks until light.

  2. Whip the cream.

  3. In a hot tureen, combine the egg yolks and whipped cream.

  4. Strain the mixture over the eggs and cream.

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. Celery + oniontop 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
Provide the body of the soup when mashed, thickening the milk.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor and becomes creamy.
Egg yolks
Enrich the soup and help it set smooth and thick when warmed.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky, full mouthfeel.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother texture in the mash.

The step that matters

Strain the mixture over the eggs and cream. Pouring hot liquid onto egg yolks can scramble them. Pour slowly while whisking, so the yolks warm gradually and the soup stays smooth.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, potato, onion, butter, cream, egg, 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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