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Cream of Celery Soup

A creamy soup made with rice, milk, celery, butter, salt, and pepper.

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

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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the rice in the milk until cooked enough to pass through a sieve.

  2. Grate the celery and add it to the rice and milk.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and butter.

  4. Boil gently until the celery is tender.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Rice + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,169 recipes

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

  5. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Thickens the soup as it cooks and breaks down, giving it a smooth body when sieved.
Milk
Forms the liquid base and adds richness and creaminess to the soup.
Celery
Provides the main flavour and, once cooked, fibrous texture that softens into the soup.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel in the finished soup.

The step that matters

Boil the rice in the milk until cooked enough to pass through a sieve. Milk scorches easily on the bottom of the pot, and under-cooked rice will not break down, leaving grainy lumps when sieved. Stirring and gentle heat help the starch swell and dissolve evenly.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, pepper, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, pepper, 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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