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Soup

Cream of Celery Soup

A creamy soup made with celery, onion, broth, butter, and heavy cream, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cream of Celery Soup

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cream of Celery Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

  1. In a pot, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped celery and onion; sauté until soft.

  3. Pour in the broth and bring to a boil.

  4. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

  5. Blend the soup until smooth, then stir in the cream.

  6. Season with salt and pepper 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.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  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

Celery
Forms the main body and flavor of the soup as it softens and releases its juices.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma when sautéed in butter until soft.
Broth
Provides the liquid that cooks the vegetables and becomes the base of the soup.
Heavy cream
Adds richness, body and a smooth, velvety texture to the blended soup.
Butter
Carries the aromatics in the pot and adds richness to the sautéed vegetables.

The step that matters

Blend until smooth before adding the cream. Blending the cooked vegetables fully breaks down their fibers so the soup becomes silky rather than grainy. Adding cream after blending, with the heat reduced, helps keep it smooth and prevents it from curdling or separating at a hard boil.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Parsleyfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, chicken, cream, pepper, butter. 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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