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Cream of Celery Soup

A creamy soup made from celery puree, onion juice, butter, flour, milk, and cream, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

Make the celery puree

  1. Cook the chopped celery in water until soft.

  2. Mash and strain the cooked celery through a sieve to make celery puree.

  3. Add 5-6 drops of onion juice to the celery puree.

Make the soup

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the flour, cooking until frothy.

  2. Add the celery puree and boiling water to the flour mixture, cooking for 5 minutes.

  3. Stir in the milk and cream, heating to 160°F (70°C).

  4. Season with salt and pepper before serving.

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
Provides the main flavour and, once pureed, the body of the soup.
Butter
Carries flavour and adds richness when melted with the flour.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the soup by forming a roux with the melted butter.
Milk
Adds moisture and softens the soup's texture.
Heavy cream
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the roux until frothy. Cooking the butter and flour together cooks off raw flour taste and lets the starch thicken the liquid evenly. Undercooked flour leaves a pasty flavour, and adding liquid too early can cause lumps.

Swap the onion

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

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

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