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Cream of Celery Soup

A creamy soup made with celery, butter, flour, chicken stock, and sweet cream, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Prepare

  1. Wash and cut the celery into 1‑inch pieces.

  2. Cook the celery in cold water until tender, but not too soft.

Make the soup

  1. In another saucepan, melt the butter.

  2. Add the flour to the melted butter and stir until smooth.

  3. Gradually add the hot chicken stock, stirring thoroughly.

  4. Add the cooked celery and sweet cream, then season with salt and pepper.

  5. If the soup is too thick, add a little milk or water.

Serve

  1. Serve with about 8 croutons dropped on top of each bowl.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

Celery
Provides the main flavour and body of the soup once cooked and blended into the base.
Butter
Carries flavour and forms the fat base that the flour is cooked into.
Flour
Thickens the soup by combining with melted butter and hot stock into a smooth base.
Chicken stock
Supplies the liquid for the soup and adds savoury depth.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Gradually add the hot chicken stock, stirring thoroughly. Adding hot liquid slowly while stirring keeps the flour dispersed so it hydrates evenly, preventing lumps in the thickened base.

Swap the celery

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

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

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