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Potage Parmentier

A creamy potato soup with onions, cream, butter, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Potage Parmentier

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 ↓

Potage Parmentier

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Peel the potatoes and place them in a saucepan with the onions and 3 pints of cold water.

  2. Bring to a boil and cook for about 35 minutes until the vegetables are very tender.

  3. Pass the mixture through a sieve back into the saucepan.

Finish and serve

  1. Return to the heat, add seasonings and butter, and bring to a boil.

  2. Stir in the cream and serve immediately with croutons.

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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

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

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

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 and thicken the soup into a smooth, creamy body.
Cream or rich milk
Adds fat and richness, giving the soup a smooth, velvety mouthfeel.
Butter
Adds fat and rounded flavour to the finished soup.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aroma as they soften in the cooking water.

The step that matters

Stir in the cream and serve immediately. Adding cream after the soup has boiled keeps it fresh and smooth; boiling dairy again can cause it to separate or turn grainy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, nutmeg, cream, pepper, 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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