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Soup

Cream of Celery

A creamy celery soup made with celery, onion, butter, flour, milk, egg yolk, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Cream of Celery

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 ↓

Cream of Celery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery

  1. Cut the coarser parts of the celery into pieces.

  2. Place celery and sliced onion in a saucepan and cover with boiling water.

  3. Cook until tender.

  4. Press through a sieve with the cooking water.

Make the soup

  1. Make a roux by melting butter and whisking in flour.

  2. Add the celery puree to the roux.

  3. Add enough boiling milk to achieve the desired consistency.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Stir in the beaten egg yolk and cream.

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

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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 once cooked and pureed.
Butter
Melts with flour to form a roux that thickens the soup and adds richness.
Flour
Thickens the soup when cooked in butter to form a roux.
Milk
Adds liquid and creaminess, loosening the thickened puree to the desired consistency.
Egg yolk
Enriches the soup and adds body when stirred in off the heat.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolk and cream off the heat. Egg yolk thickens by setting when heated, so adding it to a boiling soup can curdle it. Removing the pan from the heat first lets it thicken gently and smoothly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, butter, flour, milk, pepper, egg, cream):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, butter, flour, milk, pepper, egg, 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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