Compared by formula
Potato Soup
Compared by formula.
Rustic and chunky or fully blended smooth â and how loaded the bowl gets with bacon and cheese.
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The one most cooks reach for
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The Ultimate Potato Soup
from sugarspunrun.com
Where your pick sits among all 78
Every dot is one published recipe, placed by its measured formula. The ring is your pick â click any other dot to see that version.
What cooks found out
Read from 597 reviews across all 78 recipes. The counts are how many cooks report it â including where they disagree.
Using heavier fat (heavy cream, extra butter, bacon fat/drippings) consistently pushes richness toward the top of the scale (7-9), while cutting cream for milk, reducing butter, or omitting dairy pulls richness down to about 3-4.5.
Adding a starchy thickener -- a potato, cooked rice, roux, gravy mix, or potato flakes -- reliably lifts body into the 6-7.5 range, while skipping or omitting the thickening step drops body to around 3 or lower.
Roasting or caramelizing the vegetables (fresh-roasted, fire-roasted canned tomatoes, or a smoked-paprika stand-in) before building the soup consistently lifts vegetable flavour into the 6-8 range.
How thoroughly the soup is blended tracks directly with creaminess -- a full puree (regular blender, double-blending, or straining through a fine sieve) lands high (7-8.5), while partial blending or using a masher instead lands low (3-5.5).
More acid in the pot -- citrus, wine, extra tomato, or a tangy dairy like yogurt -- reads as brighter, while steps taken to cut acidity (added vegetables, added sugar) pull brightness back down.
Cutting the added salt (or relying on a lower-sodium stock) pulls saltiness down toward 2-5, while adding extra salt beyond the recipe's amount pushes it up to about 6.