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Cream of Spinach Soup

A soup made from spinach, onion, milk, flour, butter, celery salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Cream of Spinach 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 Spinach Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the spinach

  1. Wash the spinach and place it in a dry kettle.

  2. Add ½ cup water to the kettle.

  3. Toss the contents over the fire for 5 minutes. Cover the kettle. Cook for an additional 5 minutes.

  4. Drain the spinach. Save the water.

  5. Chop the spinach finely. Press the chopped spinach through a sieve.

  6. Return the spinach to the kettle with the reserved water.

Make the soup

  1. Add the grated onion.

  2. Add the milk.

  3. Add the flour mixed with butter.

  4. Add the celery salt.

  5. Add the pepper.

  6. Stir constantly until the soup reaches boiling point.

  7. Strain the soup again through a sieve.

  8. Serve immediately.

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. Spinach + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together616 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  3. Spinach + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Spinach
Forms the body and green colour of the soup and supplies its earthy flavour.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and creamy richness of the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it heats, giving it a smooth, body-rich texture.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavour and rounds out the texture of the soup.

The step that matters

Stir constantly until the soup reaches boiling point. Flour mixed into hot milk can clump and scorch on the bottom if not stirred. Constant stirring keeps the starch dispersed so the soup thickens smoothly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against spinach, milk, flour, butter, celery, 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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