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Cream of Celery Soup

A creamy soup made from celery, milk, butter, flour, and cream.

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

  1. Cut the celery into ½ inch pieces.

  2. Boil the celery in 2 cups of water until tender.

  3. Press the cooked celery through a coarse sieve.

Make the soup

  1. Heat the milk with the slice of onion in a double boiler until scalded.

  2. Remove the onion from the milk.

  3. Add the pressed celery to the milk.

  4. Add the salt.

  5. Add the pepper.

  6. Add the butter and flour mixture.

  7. Stir in the cream.

  8. Cook until thick.

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.

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Celery
Provides the main flavour and body, and its fibres thicken the soup when pressed through a sieve.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base of the soup.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the soup as it cooks.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the soup a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Add the butter and flour mixture to the hot milk and cook until thick. Flour thickens only when its starch granules are heated in liquid, and stirring prevents lumps. Cooking long enough lets the starch fully swell, so the soup reaches full thickness without a raw floury taste.

Swap the onion

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

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

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