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
Wash and scrape the celery, then cut it into half-inch pieces.
Put the celery into 2 cups of boiling salted water and cook until very soft.
Mash the celery in the water it was boiled in.
Make the soup base
Cook the onion with the milk in a double boiler for 10 minutes.
Add the cooked onion mixture to the celery.
Rub the mixture through a strainer.
Return the strained mixture to the pot to boil again.
Finish and serve
In a small saucepan, cook the butter and flour together until smooth but not brown.
Stir the butter and flour mixture into the boiling soup.
Add the salt and pepper.
Boil for 5 minutes.
Strain into a tureen.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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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
- Forms the main body and flavour of the soup, softening into a smooth purée when mashed.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and body to the soup, giving it a smooth, rich texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, and with the flour forms a roux that thickens the soup.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup when cooked with butter into a roux and stirred into the liquid.
The step that matters
Cooking the butter and flour until smooth but not brown. Cooking flour in butter gelatinises its starch so it thickens evenly. Browning the roux changes its flavour and weakens its thickening power, and stirring it in while lumpy leaves lumps in the soup.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, milk, butter, flour, pepper):
- Carrotfits better
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against celery, milk, butter, 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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