Name: Celery Soup
Ingredients: one cup celery cut fine; two cups boiling water; one pint milk; one slice onion; two tablespoons butter; two tablespoons chopped onion; a small piece of salt pork; a quart of milk; three level tablespoons flour; 28 bethany union cook book new england clam chowder; five potatoes sliced thin; six national biscuit company's brown baked butter crack- ers; salt; pepper

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

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.

Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,668 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,047 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery: Provides the main vegetable flavor and body of the soup.
Milk: Forms the creamy liquid base and adds richness and mild sweetness.
Flour: Thickens the milk into a creamy base as it cooks with the butter.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, and carries flavor through the soup.
Potatoes: Add starch and body, giving the chowder a thicker texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the butter and flour until creamy. Flour must be stirred constantly over heat so it cooks smoothly without lumps or scorching. Cooking it thoroughly thickens the milk evenly and removes the raw starch taste.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, onion, butter, pork, flour, clam, potato):

Garlicfits better
Thymefits better
Parsleyfits about as well
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, onion, butter, pork, flour, clam, potato. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Pork	100g cooked	242
Biscuit	1 medium (45g)	166
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Clam	100g cooked	148
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

Celery Soup

Celery Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)