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Celery Soup

A soup made from chopped celery, water, garlic, olive oil, nut butter, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,665 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Celery Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Boil the chopped celery in 1 quart of water for 10 minutes.

  2. Drain the water.

  3. Add 2 quarts of fresh water.

  4. Add the garlic, olive oil, and nut butter.

  5. Boil for 2 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the 3 cups of milk and the thickened milk.

  2. Boil for a few more minutes.

  3. 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.

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. Garlic + olivetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Celery + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,667 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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 bulk of the soup as it simmers.
Milk
Adds creaminess and body to the broth, mellowing its flavour.
Nut butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the soup a fuller, smoother mouthfeel.
Olive oil
Carries fat-soluble aromas and adds a smooth richness to the soup.
Flour
Thickens the milk so the finished soup has a slightly heavier body.

The step that matters

Boil for 2 hours. Long simmering softens the celery fully and draws out its flavour, but the liquid can reduce and scorch on the base if not watched and stirred.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, garlic, olive, butter, milk, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, garlic, olive, butter, milk, flour. 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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