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Potato Soup

A soup made from boiled potatoes, milk, dried vegetables, butter, egg, and served with fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Potato Soup

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Boil the potatoes until cooked.

  2. Rub the cooked potatoes through a colander into a pot.

  3. Add the boiling milk, dried vegetables, salt, and pepper.

  4. Simmer for 30 minutes.

  5. Stir in the butter.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the egg with a little cold milk.

  2. Stir the beaten egg quickly into the soup and remove from heat immediately.

  3. Serve with fried 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.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 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. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy body that thickens the soup when mashed through a colander.
Milk
Forms the liquid base and adds richness and softness to the soup.
Egg
Thickens the soup slightly and adds richness when stirred in off the heat.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother mouthfeel and rich flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring in the beaten egg. If the egg is added to very hot soup or stirred slowly, it can scramble into small curds instead of blending smoothly. Stirring quickly and removing the pot from heat keeps the egg silky and thickening the soup gently.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Tomatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, pepper, butter, egg, bread. 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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