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Cream of Potato Soup

A creamy soup made from boiled potatoes, milk, flour, butter, onion, celery, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Cream of 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 ↓

Cream of Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil potatoes until tender, then run them through a ricer or sieve into a saucepan.

  2. Add milk to the potatoes.

Make the soup

  1. Mix flour, butter, grated onion, salt, white pepper, cayenne pepper, and chopped celery together, then add to the potato mixture.

  2. Place saucepan over low heat and cook slowly until mixture thickens, stirring constantly.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Pepper + celerytop 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
Provide the starchy body that gives the soup its creamy, smooth texture.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it heats, giving it body.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Milk
Supplies liquid and dairy richness that makes the soup creamy.

The step that matters

Cooking slowly over low heat while stirring. Flour needs gentle heat and constant stirring to thicken evenly without scorching or forming lumps. Heating too fast can burn the milk on the pan base and leave the soup uneven.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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