Skip to main content
Soup

Creme De Celeri- -cream of Celery

A creamy celery soup made with a roux, celery, broth, cream, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Creme De Celeri- -cream of Celery

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter and mix in the flour to make a roux; cook for a few minutes without coloring.

  2. Add the broth to the roux and let it simmer, skimming off any scum.

Cook the celery

  1. Clean and finely chop the celery stalks, then parboil them.

  2. Add the parboiled celery to the stock and cook for 1 hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the boiling cream and strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

  2. Return the soup to a clean saucepan, season to taste, and before serving, stir in the egg yolks, cream, and sweet butter.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Flour + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + chickentop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the roux and adds richness and flavor to the soup.
Flour
Forms the roux that thickens the broth into a smooth body.
Celery stalks
Provide the main vegetable flavor and fine texture once strained.
Egg yolks
Enrich the soup and give it a silky, thicker texture when stirred in off the heat.
Cream
Adds richness, body, and a smooth, mellow mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolks. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if they meet very hot liquid. Adding them just before serving, off the heat, lets them thicken the soup smoothly without turning grainy.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, chicken, cream, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, chicken, cream, egg. 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

Cream of CeleryCream of Celery37 recipesIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and SpinachIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and Spinach448 recipesClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd SoupClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd Soup65 recipesMock Bisque SoupMock Bisque Soup51 recipes