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Cream of Celery Soup

A creamy soup made from celery, onion, milk, butter, tapioca, flour, and egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Cream of Celery Soup

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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the vegetables

  1. Combine chopped celery and onion with enough water to cover in a pot.

  2. Stew until tender, then drain.

Make the soup

  1. Add milk to the pot with the reserved water and heat on the stove.

  2. Stir in butter, cooked tapioca, flour, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  3. Bring to a boil.

  4. Beat the egg yolk before serving.

  5. Stir the beaten egg yolk into the soup.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Celery + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,331 recipes

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

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 body of the soup.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it heats.
Cooked tapioca
Adds additional thickening and a smooth texture.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the soup when stirred in.

The step that matters

Stir the beaten egg yolk into the soup. Egg yolk thickens when heated, so adding it to very hot soup can curdle it. Temper it first and keep the soup below a boil.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, milk, butter, flour, pepper, nutmeg, egg):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, milk, butter, flour, pepper, nutmeg, 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.

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