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Potato Soup a LA Creme

A creamy potato soup made with veal, butter, onion, celery, milk, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Potato Soup a LA Creme

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped onion, celery, and veal; cook gently for 20 minutes.

  3. Stir in the sliced potatoes, water, lemon rind, and seasoning.

Simmer and finish

  1. Add the milk and simmer slowly for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

  2. Press the mixture through a sieve into a clean pot.

  3. Stir in the cream and bring to a boil.

  4. Serve hot with toasted bread.

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. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

  4. Butter + milktop 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 during simmering to thicken the soup and give it a creamy body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that, reduced slowly, gives the soup its rich, smooth texture.
Butter
Fat that softens the onion and celery and carries flavour through the soup.
Cream
Stirred in at the end to add richness and a silkier mouthfeel.
Veal
Contributes meaty flavour to the stock-like base as it cooks gently.

The step that matters

Simmering the milk slowly. Milk can scorch or boil over on the bottom of the pot during a long simmer. Gentle heat and occasional stirring prevent sticking and keep the milk from curdling, so the soup stays smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Coconutfits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Avocadofits less well
  4. Applefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, celery, veal, potato, milk, cream. 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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