Skip to main content
Main

Celery Soup with Oysters

A soup made from celery, onion, parsley, milk, and oysters, simmered and seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Celery Soup with Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the celery broth

  1. Combine celery, onion, parsley, and boiling water in a saucepan; boil for 1 hour.

  2. Heat the milk in a double boiler.

Thicken and finish

  1. Mix flour with warm milk to form a smooth paste; add to the hot milk and stir until creamy.

  2. Strain the celery mixture through a colander into the milk.

  3. Add salt and pepper; bring to a boil.

  4. Add the oysters; once it boils again, remove from heat and serve.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 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

Celery
Gives the soup its main flavor and body as it boils down in water.
Oysters
Add a briny, savory flavor and tender texture when cooked briefly at the end.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the soup and adds richness and mild sweetness.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a creamy, smooth body when mixed to a paste first.

The step that matters

Adding the oysters. Oysters toughen and turn rubbery if they boil too long. Once the soup boils again, they should be removed from heat right away.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, parsley, milk, flour, pepper, oyster. 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.

You might also like

Cream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCelery StewCelery Stew25 recipesMock Oyster SoupMock Oyster Soup21 recipesCelery CroquettesCelery Croquettes16 recipes