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
Chop the raw meat finely and dredge with flour.
Place the meat and bones in an agate-ware pot with a close-fitting cover.
Pour in the cold water and let soak for at least 1 hour.
Make the soup
Heat gradually and simmer, covered, for several hours until the bones drop apart.
Add the chopped celery and onion juice, and cook for about 1 hour.
Strain the soup through a soup-strainer.
Stir in the sweet cream, bring to a boil, and season with salt and pepper.
Serve
Serve in cups with salted crackers.
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.
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Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,165 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Meat + lambtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together469 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
- Raw meat
- Breaks down during long simmering to give the broth its body and savory flavor.
- Flour
- Dusting the meat lightly helps thicken the soup slightly as it cooks.
- Bones
- Release gelatin and minerals during long simmering, adding richness and body to the broth.
- Celery
- Contributes its distinct aroma and fresh, vegetal flavor to the finished soup.
- Sweet cream
- Adds fat and richness, softening the broth and rounding its flavor.
The step that matters
Heat gradually and simmer covered for several hours. Heating slowly and keeping the pot covered lets collagen and connective tissue in the bones and meat break down into gelatin without the liquid boiling hard. Boiling vigorously would make the broth cloudy and tough-flavored.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, flour, lamb, celery, cream, pepper):
- Spinachfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Potatofits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, flour, lamb, 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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