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Potage Parmentier

A potato and vegetable soup finished with consommé and served over fried bread crusts.

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

Prepare

  1. Pick, wash, and cut the potatoes into pieces.

  2. Place them in a stew-pan with butter and salt.

Cook and strain

  1. Add cress, onion, and leek, then moisten with water to cover the vegetables.

  2. Cook until the vegetables are soft, then strain the mixture.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix the strained soup with consommé to achieve the desired consistency.

  2. Finish with a little butter and serve over fried bread crusts in a tureen.

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. Onion + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  3. Potato + leektop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

  5. Leek + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together279 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Starch that thickens the soup and gives it a smooth, body-rich texture when strained.
Butter
Adds fat and rich flavour, both in cooking the vegetables and as a final finish.
Leek
Contributes a mild, sweet onion-like aroma to the soup base.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma as it softens in the soup base.
Consommé
Adds meaty savouriness and adjusts the soup to the desired consistency.

The step that matters

Cook until the vegetables are soft, then strain the mixture. Potatoes must be fully soft so they break down and release starch; incompletely cooked pieces will not purée smoothly, leaving a grainy texture after straining.

Swap the leek

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

  1. Chivefits about as well
  2. Leekthe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Tomatofits about as well

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