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Soup

White Soup

A creamy soup of potatoes, onions, tapioca, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook the vegetables

  1. Cut the potatoes and onions.

  2. Put them into 2 quarts of boiling water and boil for 45 minutes.

  3. Rub the vegetables through a sieve and return the paste to the water.

Finish the soup

  1. Add butter, salt, and pepper to taste.

  2. Soak the tapioca, then boil it in the soup for 15 minutes.

  3. Add 1½ pints of milk and heat through before serving.

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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Break down into a starchy paste that thickens and gives the soup body.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma as they soften and cook into the broth.
Tapioca
Thickens the soup as its starch swells and gelatinizes during boiling.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness, softening the soup's flavor and texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boiling the tapioca in the soup. Tapioca must be soaked first and then fully boiled, because its starch only swells and thickens properly once it reaches a boil. Undercooked tapioca stays chewy and pearly, and the soup will not thicken evenly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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

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