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Cream of Celery Soup

A soup made from veal, chicken, celery, cream, and seasoned with salt, pepper, and cracker crumbs.

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

Make the stock

  1. Combine veal, chicken, and cold water in a large pot.

  2. Simmer until the meat is cooked.

  3. Remove the chicken breast and best parts of the meat.

  4. Return the bones to the pot and boil hard for 1 hour.

  5. Strain the stock and let it cool overnight.

  6. Skim off the fat before using.

Finish the soup

  1. Put the stock into a kettle and slowly bring it to a boil.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. In a small bowl, mix 1½ cups cream with 2 teaspoons flour until smooth.

  4. Add the mixture to the boiling stock without boiling again.

  5. In a separate pot, stew the chopped celery in salted boiling water for 30 minutes.

  6. Drain the celery and add it to the soup.

  7. Serve immediately with 1 teaspoon of cracker crumbs in each bowl.

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. Veal + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).

  3. Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Flour + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety body to the finished soup.
Flour
Thickens the cream and stock so the soup has a smooth, lightly body.
Celery
Contributes its own vegetable flavor and aroma to the soup.
Veal
Builds a rich, savory meat flavor into the stock.

The step that matters

Add the cream and flour mixture without boiling again. Flour mixed with cream needs to be smooth before it meets hot liquid, or it can clump. Once thickened, the soup can curdle or separate if it is boiled hard again, so it should be added off the boil and kept just hot.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, chicken, cream, flour, pepper):

  1. Turmericfits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, chicken, cream, flour, 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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