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Celery Soup

A creamy celery soup made with butter, flour, cream, and broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Celery Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery

  1. Parboil the celery pieces in water for 5 minutes, then drain.

Make the soup

  1. In a saucepan, melt 4 ounces of butter, then add the celery, salt, pepper, and white broth. Cover and simmer for 1 hour.

  2. In another saucepan, knead 4 ounces of butter with 5 ounces of flour until combined.

  3. Stir and cook the flour mixture briefly, then dilute it with 1 quart of boiled cream and 2 quarts of veal or chicken broth.

  4. Add the cooked celery to the mixture and boil for 10 minutes.

  5. Pass the soup through a sieve and return it to the heat.

  6. Add 2 ounces of butter, 1 cup of raw cream, and 1 teaspoon of cream, stirring until combined.

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

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Celery + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Celery + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,863 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

Celery
Forms the main body and flavour of the soup as it simmers and breaks down.
Flour
Cooked with butter to form a roux that thickens the broth.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and giving a smooth mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the finished soup.
Broth
Forms the liquid base that the roux thickens and the celery cooks in.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour mixture briefly before adding the liquid. Flour must be cooked enough to lose its raw taste and to thicken smoothly; adding liquid too early or without stirring can leave lumps and a pasty flavour.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, flour, cream, veal. 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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