Skip to main content
Main

Cream of Celery

A creamy celery soup made with celery leaves, stalks, rice, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
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. Wash the leaves of the celery and scrape the tough outer stalks.

Make the soup

  1. Simmer the celery in water until all flavor is extracted.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Thicken with cornstarch blended in a little water.

  4. Add salt, pepper, rice, and diced celery.

  5. Add milk.

  6. Heat thoroughly.

  7. Serve.

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

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

  3. Celery + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,169 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Celery + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Celery leaves and stalks
Provides the main celery flavor, which is drawn into the water during simmering.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, creamy body when heated.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mild richness to the finished soup.
Boiled rice
Adds body and a soft texture to the soup.

The step that matters

Thicken with cornstarch blended in a little water. Cornstarch must be mixed into cold or room-temperature water first so it does not clump, then heated so its starch granules swell and thicken the liquid evenly.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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

You might also like

Rice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipesSteamed RiceSteamed Rice48 recipesRice Griddle CakesRice Griddle Cakes28 recipesCelery StewCelery Stew25 recipes