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Cream of Celery Sotjp

A creamy soup made with celery, onion, butter, flour, milk, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Cream of Celery Sotjp

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.

Cook the celery

  1. In a pot, combine the celery, boiling water, and onion. Cook until the celery is tender.

Make the white sauce

  1. In a separate pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes.

  2. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens.

Combine and serve

  1. Combine the thickened mixture with the celery and water. Season with salt and pepper.

  2. Simmer for a few minutes, then serve hot.

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 + 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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Provides the main flavor and, once cooked until tender, the body of the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor, and forms the base of the roux.
Flour
Thickens the soup when cooked in butter and combined with milk into a smooth sauce.
Milk
Makes the thickened base creamy and mild in flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the milk to the roux. Adding milk gradually while stirring constantly keeps the flour smooth. Adding it all at once can cause lumps, and the sauce thickens as the starch swells in the liquid.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, butter, pepper, milk, flour. 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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