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Soup

Ckeam of Celery Soup

A soup of celery pulp simmered in veal stock or chicken broth and finished with milk or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Ckeam of Celery Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery

  1. Boil the coarse celery blades until very tender, about 1 to 1½ hours.

  2. Rub the cooked celery through a sieve to create a pulp.

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, bring 3 pints of veal stock or chicken broth to a boil.

  2. Add the celery pulp, salt, pepper, and butter to the boiling stock.

  3. Let it boil briefly, then add the sweet milk or cream.

  4. Remove from heat as soon as it reaches the boiling point again.

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

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

  3. Celery + vealtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Celery + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,491 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

Celery
Provides the main flavour and, once pureed, the body of the soup.
Veal stock or chicken broth
Forms the liquid base that carries the celery flavour.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rounded mouthfeel and richer flavour.
Sweet milk or cream
Adds richness and a creamy texture to the soup.

The step that matters

Remove from heat as soon as the soup reaches the boiling point again. Once milk or cream is added, prolonged boiling can scorch the dairy and cause it to curdle or separate, so the soup should be taken off the heat promptly.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, butter, 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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