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 ↓
Celery Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Blanch the celery heads in warm water.
Place them in a stewpan with veal broth and a lump of sugar.
Boil for 1 to 2 hours until soft.
Either pulp through a sieve and thicken with cream or serve as a stew.
Add a little cayenne pepper if desired.
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.
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Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Celery + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,863 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
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Celery + vealtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,336 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,049 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, sugar, cream, pepper):
- Nutmegfits better
- Celerythe original
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Tarragonfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, sugar, cream, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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