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Celery Soup Puree, Spanish Style

A creamy celery soup puree made with celery, broth, cream, and egg yolks, garnished with parsley and fried bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Celery Soup Puree, Spanish Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery

  1. Clean and wash the celery, trimming off all green parts.

  2. Cut the tender parts into 1-inch pieces and mix with the sliced celery roots.

  3. Parboil the celery and roots for 5 minutes.

  4. Immerse in cold water, drain, and dry.

Make the soup

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and add the celery mixture.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and sugar.

  3. Cover and simmer until moisture is reduced.

  4. Add the white broth and the faggot of parsley, garnished with leeks and green onions.

  5. Boil until the celery is well cooked.

  6. Add the thickened veal or chicken broth and boil slowly for 20 minutes.

  7. Remove the faggot and strain the soup through a fine sieve.

  8. Return the soup to the saucepan to keep warm.

Finish and serve

  1. When ready to serve, mix in the cream, diluted with the egg yolks, and the butter until melted.

  2. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve with small fried bread crumbs.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Celery + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Leek + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery
Forms the body of the soup, and as it cooks down it gives the soup its flavour and body.
Celery roots
Add a dense, earthy flavour and help thicken the soup as they break down.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the soup.
Thickened veal or chicken broth
Provides the main liquid and savoury depth for the soup.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky texture to the finished soup.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the cream, giving the soup a smoother, velvety body.

The step that matters

Mixing in the cream and egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken when heated, so if the soup is too hot when they are added, they can scramble and turn grainy. Diluting them with cream and adding them off the heat keeps the texture smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, butter, pepper, nutmeg, sugar, parsley, leek):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, butter, pepper, nutmeg, sugar, parsley, leek. 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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