Why it works: Tomato and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,375 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Make the soup
Place the stewed tomatoes with their liquid, the celery soup, tomato puree, and milk in a 2-quart saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring just to combine.
Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and let the soup simmer, uncovered, until the flavors blend, 4 to 5 minutes.
Make the grilled cheese cubes
Meanwhile, make the grilled cheese cubes.
Place half of the butter in a small non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.
Place the cheddar cheese between the bread slices, and if necessary, trim cheese slices to fit the bread.
Place the sandwich in the skillet and dot the top with the remaining butter.
Cook the sandwich until the bottom is golden, 1 to 2 minutes, then flip it with a spatula.
Cook the second side until the cheese is melted and the bread is crusty and golden brown 1 to 2 minutes longer.
Remove the sandwich from the skillet with a spatula and use a sharp knife to cut it into 30 small crouton-like pieces.
Serve
To serve, ladle the soup into serving bowls, and scatter 5 grilled cheese cubes on top of each serving.
This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Tomato + celerytop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,375 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Milk + wheattop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,416 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Milk + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together81,222 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + cheddar cheesetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,434 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together41,494 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Stewed tomatoes
- Provide the main tomato body and liquid for the soup.
- Cream of celery soup
- Adds thickness and a creamy, smooth body to the soup.
- Tomato purée
- Deepens the tomato flavor and thickens the soup base.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and softens the acidity of the tomatoes.
- Cheddar cheese
- Melts into the bread for rich flavor and a golden, crisp crust.
The step that matters
Cooking the sandwich in the skillet. Medium-high heat is needed to brown the bread and melt the cheese, but too high a heat can scorch the bread before the cheese melts through, so watch the color closely while flipping.
Flavor stand-ins for the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cream, milk, butter, cheddar cheese, wheat):
- Cinnamonabout as good a flavor fit
- Celerythe original
- Garlicabout as good a flavor fit
- Nutmegabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cream, milk, butter, cheddar cheese, wheat. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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