Name: Potato Soup
Ingredients: 1 carrot, chopped; 1 onion, chopped; 2 large potatoes, chopped; pepper, to taste; coarse sea salt, to taste; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 quart milk

Why it works: Onion and potato 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

Cook the vegetables

Combine the chopped carrot, onion, and potatoes in a pot.
Add enough water to cover the vegetables.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Once boiling, strain the mixture through a colander.
Return the strained vegetables to the pot.

Finish and serve

Add pepper, coarse sea salt, butter, and milk.
Heat until it comes to a boil again.
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.

Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,107 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes: Break down during cooking to thicken the soup and give it a creamy body.
Milk: Adds creaminess and a rich, mellow flavor to the soup.
Butter: Adds fat for a smoother mouthfeel and rounded flavor.
Onion: Contributes savory aromatic sweetness as it softens during cooking.

Swap the carrot

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

Capsicumfits about as well
Chivefits about as well
Carrotthe original
Leekfits about as well

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