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Celery Soup

A creamy celery soup made with stock, onions, cream, egg yolk, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 onion.

  2. Wash the celery and cut it into 1-inch pieces, using the leaves and stems.

Make the soup

  1. Add the celery and onion to the stock and cook until tender.

  2. Strain through a colander, rubbing as much pulp through as possible.

  3. Reheat the broth.

  4. Beat the egg yolk, add the cream, and stir the mixture into the hot stock.

  5. Season with salt and pepper, and serve with croutons.

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

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

  4. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

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

  5. Cream + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Cream and onion barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 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

Meat stock
Forms the liquid base and carries the flavor of the celery and onion.
Celery
Provides the main flavor and, once cooked and strained, thickens the soup with its pulp.
Onion
Adds savory depth as it softens in the stock.
Egg yolk
Enriches the soup and thickens it slightly when stirred into the hot stock.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolk and cream into the hot stock. If the hot stock is added too quickly or boils after the egg is in, the yolk can scramble and curdle. Tempering the yolk with some cream first and keeping the soup hot but not boiling helps it blend smoothly and thicken evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, egg, celery, cream, pepper):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, egg, celery, cream, pepper. 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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