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Celery Soup

A soup made from celery, onion, rice, stock, milk, seasoned with pepper, salt, roux, served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Celery Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the celery and onion finely.

Make the soup

  1. Boil them in the soup stock until tender.

  2. Add the milk and rice.

  3. Boil until the mixture is a pulp.

  4. Season with pepper, salt, and a little roux.

  5. Strain through a fine sieve or metal strainer.

  6. Boil for a few minutes, being careful not to burn.

Serve

  1. Serve with small croutons of fried bread.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  5. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery
Forms the main body and flavour of the soup once cooked down to a pulp.
Rice
Thickens the soup as it cooks and breaks down, adding body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness to the soup.
Roux
Thickens the liquid further, giving a smoother, heavier texture.

The step that matters

Boil for a few minutes, being careful not to burn. Milk contains sugars and proteins that scorch easily on direct heat, so the soup can take on a burnt taste and stick to the pot. Stirring and keeping the heat moderate helps prevent this.

Swap the onion

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

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

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