Name: Cream of Celery Soup
Ingredients: 3 oz. whipped cream; 75 gms. broiled steak; 10 gms. ripe olives; 60 gms. baked potato; 15 c.c. cream; 50 gms. fresh asparagus; 5 gms. butter; 50 gms. tomato salad

Why it works: Olive and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Cream of Celery Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cream of celery soup and set aside.
Broil the steak to your desired doneness.
Serve the whipped cream as a topping for the soup.
Plate the ripe olives and baked potato alongside the steak.
Sauté fresh asparagus in butter until tender.
Serve the tomato salad on the side.

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.

Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Potato + asparagustop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together217 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,798 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Olive + potatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,458 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Olive + asparagustop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,096 recipes

Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

Swap the asparagus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, olive, potato, butter, tomato):

Capsicumfits about as well
Onionfits about as well
Chivefits about as well
Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, olive, potato, butter, tomato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.