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Cream of Celery Soup

A velvety soup made from veal stock, celery, milk, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Cream of Celery Soup

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cream of Celery Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a large pot, combine veal, soup bone, salt, pepper, soup bunch, onions, cloves, allspice, and cold water.

  2. Heat slowly and boil gently until reduced by half.

  3. Strain the stock and cool it, then remove the fat and keep the stock warm.

Make the soup

  1. In a double boiler, heat the milk.

  2. In a thick-bottomed pan, melt the butter and add the celery, browning it well.

  3. Stir in the flour and mix well, then gradually add the hot stock, one pint at a time, stirring until smooth.

  4. Add enough milk to make the soup creamy, strain, and do not boil after adding the milk.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Celery + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,422 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Gives the stock body and rich, savoury flavour as it simmers.
Celery
Provides the main celery flavour, browned in butter for a deeper taste.
Butter
Fat that carries flavour and helps the celery brown.
Flour
Thickens the soup into a smooth, velvety body with the stock.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a soft, mellow texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Do not boil after adding the milk. Milk can curdle or scorch when boiled, which would leave the soup grainy and separated instead of smooth and creamy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, celery, clove, allspice, milk, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, celery, clove, allspice, milk, butter. 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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