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 ↓
123 Potato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
In a large pot, bring 1 gallon of water to a boil.
Add 6 chopped potatoes, 1 cup of rice, and 1 onion.
Boil for 1 hour.
Finish and serve
In a separate bowl, work together ½ cup of butter and 1 tablespoon of flour.
Just before serving, stir in 1 cup of sweet cream.
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.
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together851 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Break down during boiling to thicken the soup and give it body.
- Rice
- Releases starch as it cooks, helping thicken the soup further.
- Butter
- Combined with flour to form a paste that enriches the soup and adds richness.
- Flour
- Works with the butter to form a paste that helps thicken the soup.
- Sweet cream
- Added at the end to add richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
The step that matters
Stirring in the cream just before serving. Cream held at a long boil can split and turn grainy, and it thins the texture if overheated, so it is added off the heat at the end.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, rice, butter, flour, cream):
- Leekfits better
- Chivefits better
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, rice, butter, flour, cream. 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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