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Celery Soup

A light soup made from celery, onion, water, milk, butter, flour, and 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 the celery

  1. Cut the celery into pieces and keep in water until ready to use.

  2. In a pot, cook the celery and onion in 2 quarts of water for 45 minutes.

  3. Rub the mixture through a colander to obtain 1 pint of pulp and liquid.

Finish the soup

  1. Add 1 quart of milk, 1 teaspoon of salt, and a pinch of cayenne pepper.

  2. In a bowl, mix the butter and flour together until smooth.

  3. When the milk is just boiling, stir in the butter and flour mixture and cook for 2 more minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve with croutons made from buttered bread cut into small squares and toasted.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery
Provides the main flavour and body of the soup as it cooks and is pressed through.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the soup, adding richness and smooth texture.
Butter and flour
Mixed together and stirred in, the flour thickens the soup while the butter adds richness.

The step that matters

Stirring in the butter and flour mixture. Flour must be added to hot, just-boiling milk and stirred well, or it can clump. Cooking it for a couple of minutes lets the starch swell and thicken the soup smoothly.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, milk, pepper, butter, flour, 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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