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Cream of Celery Soup

A creamy soup made with celery, onion, stock, butter, flour, milk, and cream, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

Prepare and simmer

  1. Clean the celery and cut it and the onion finely.

  2. Put the celery, onion, and stock into a saucepan and let it simmer slowly for half an hour.

Thicken and strain

  1. Beat the butter and flour together to a smooth, light cream.

  2. Stir a few spoonfuls of the stock into the butter‑flour cream, then add this mixture to the soup.

  3. Boil the soup for ten minutes and strain it through a fine sieve.

  4. Return the strained soup to the saucepan and add the milk.

Finish and serve

  1. When the soup boils, add the cream and heat it just to the boiling point.

  2. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

  3. If you intend to serve the soup several times, return only half a cupful of the strained soup to the saucepan, add a quarter cup of milk and a quarter cup of cream, and heat to the boiling point.

  4. Keep the remainder of the soup in a cold place.

  5. Add milk and cream and heat the soup when required.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

978Calories
54 gProtein
30 gFat
120 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Chicken100g cooked165
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Combined with butter, it thickens the soup into a smooth, velvety body.
Butter
Provides fat that carries flavour and helps bind the flour into a smooth paste.
Celery
Supplies the main aromatic flavour and fibrous body that the soup is built on.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, mellowing the soup's flavour and texture.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the soup a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Chicken
Forms the liquid base of the soup, supplying moisture and savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring stock into the butter‑flour mixture. Adding liquid gradually to the butter and flour paste, rather than all at once, lets the flour disperse evenly and prevents lumps, giving a smooth thickened soup.

Swap the celery

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

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

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