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Potato Soup

A creamy potato soup made with potatoes, onions, milk, and a white sauce, seasoned with salt, celery salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Potato Soup

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. Cook the potatoes and sliced onion in water until soft.

  2. Strain the mixture without draining.

Make the white sauce

  1. In a separate pot, melt the fat.

  2. Add flour to the melted fat.

  3. Gradually whisk in the milk.

Combine and serve

  1. Combine the white sauce with the potato mixture.

  2. Season with salt, celery salt, and pepper.

  3. Bring to a boil.

  4. Stir in the finely chopped parsley.

  5. Serve.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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, thickening the soup and giving it body.
Flour
Thickens the melted fat into a roux, which gives the white sauce its body.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base of the white sauce, adding richness and softness.
Fat
Carries flavor and forms the roux with flour for the white sauce.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and sweetness as it cooks into the potato broth.

The step that matters

Gradually whisk in the milk. Adding cold milk all at once to the flour and fat can cause lumps. Adding it slowly while whisking lets the starch disperse evenly and thicken smoothly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, milk, celery, pepper, parsley, flour):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, celery, pepper, parsley, flour. 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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