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Soup

Cream of Celery

A creamy soup made from celery, onion, vegetable broth, and heavy cream, optionally colored green.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cream of Celery

Why it works: Celery and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,518 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cream of Celery

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, sauté the chopped celery and onion until soft.

  2. Add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil.

  3. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

  4. Blend the mixture until smooth.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the heavy cream and season with salt.

  2. Add green food coloring if desired, and serve hot.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Onion + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Celery + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,863 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

Onion and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 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 flavor and body of the soup as it softens and breaks down.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth when softened in the pot at the start.
Vegetable broth
Supplies the liquid that cooks the vegetables and becomes the base of the soup.
Heavy cream
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and a silky mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Blend the mixture until smooth. Blending while the vegetables are fully cooked breaks down their cell walls, giving a smooth texture. Under-cooked vegetables will leave the soup grainy or fibrous.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, cream):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Celerythe original
  3. Nutmegfits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, cream. 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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