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Soup

Spanish Celery Soup

A soup made with celery, green pepper, butter, broth, rice, tomatoes, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Spanish Celery Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine the celery, green pepper, and butter.

  2. Cover and steam for 10 minutes.

  3. Add the broth, rice, tomatoes, salt, and pepper.

  4. Mix well and let boil slowly for 45 minutes.

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 + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Celery + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 as it softens in the broth.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the vegetables soften while steaming.
Raw rice
Thickens the soup as its starch releases during the long simmer.
Tomatoes
Adds acidity and fresh flavor that balances the vegetables and broth.
Broth
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor of the whole soup.

The step that matters

Steaming the celery, green pepper, and butter. Covering the pan and steaming gently softens the vegetables in their own moisture and butter without browning them, so they blend into a smooth, mild base rather than a toasted one.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

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