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Milk Soup

Milk Soup is a simple soup made with water, butter, milk, mashed potatoes, tapioca, and optional onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Milk Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, combine cold water and butter. Bring to a boil.

  2. Add the mashed potatoes and tapioca. Boil for 10 minutes.

  3. If desired, add chopped onion and stir well.

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

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Tapioca
Thickens the soup as it boils, giving it a smooth, slightly body-rich texture.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, helping the soup feel thick and creamy.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness to the soup.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the broth.

The step that matters

Boil the tapioca for 10 minutes. Tapioca starch only thickens fully when it is boiled and stirred, so cooking it too briefly can leave the soup thin and grainy-textured. Stirring also keeps it from sticking and scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, potato):

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

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