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Potato Soup

A creamy soup made with potatoes, onion, celery, stock, milk, and sago.

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

Make the soup base

  1. Slice the potatoes, onion, and celery.

  2. Heat the butter in a saucepan, add the vegetables, and cook until the butter is absorbed, stirring frequently.

  3. Add the stock and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 1 hour.

  4. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve and return to the saucepan.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the milk and bring to a boil.

  2. Sprinkle in the sago and cook until transparent.

  3. Season to taste and 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. 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. 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 give the soup body and a thick, smooth texture.
Sago or tapioca
Thickens the soup as its starch gelatinizes, giving a light body.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the flavour of the cooked vegetables.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the flavour of the stock.

The step that matters

Sprinkle in the sago and cook until transparent. Sago and tapioca need to boil in the liquid long enough for their starch to swell and clear; undercooked starch leaves a cloudy, grainy thickening and can taste raw.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Celerythe original

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