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
Make the soup
In a pot, combine the chopped celery, white stock, diced ham, and butter.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently for 1 hour.
Strain the mixture through a sieve back into the pot.
Finish and serve
Stir in a few spoonfuls of cream carefully.
Serve with toasted bread and thicken with flour if desired. Season to taste.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Celery
- Provides the main flavour and body of the soup as it simmers down.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the broth.
- Lean ham
- Contributes savoury, salty depth to the stock.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, mellow texture when stirred in at the end.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup slightly if added, giving it more body.
The step that matters
Stirring in the cream. Cream can curdle or separate if it is added to very hot liquid or boiled after it goes in. Adding it carefully in spoonfuls, with the soup off a hard boil, keeps it smooth.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, butter, cream, bread, flour, pepper):
- Nutmegfits better
- Parsleyfits about as well
- Capersfits about as well
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, cream, bread, 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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