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Celery Soup

A soup made with beef shank, celery, flour, cream, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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

Make the broth

  1. Make a rich broth with the beef shank, skimming off the fat as it rises.

Finish the soup

  1. Once ready, remove the meat and thicken the broth with flour mixed in a little cold water.

  2. Boil the chopped celery in the soup until tender.

  3. Add the cream, salt, and pepper to taste, and 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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + celerytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Celery + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Celery + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,863 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef shank
Gives the broth its rich, meaty flavor and body as it simmers.
Celery
Adds its vegetal flavor and fibrous texture to the soup as it softens.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Flour
Thickens the broth so it has a fuller, more coating consistency.

The step that matters

Mixing flour into cold water before adding it to the broth. Flour dropped directly into hot liquid clumps, because its starch surface hydrates unevenly. Suspending it in cold water first lets it disperse, giving a smooth, evenly thickened soup.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, cream, flour, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Turmericfits about as well
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, cream, flour, pepper. 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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