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Celery Soup

A simple soup made with celery, butter, water, salt, white pepper, egg yolk, and milk or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Celery Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Add the celery and stir until coated with butter.

  3. Pour in the water.

  4. Add salt.

  5. Add white pepper.

  6. Boil uncovered until the celery is soft.

  7. Skim off any froth that rises.

  8. Once soft, rub the mixture through a sieve.

  9. Return the soup to the pan and bring to a boil.

Finish with egg and cream

  1. Mix the egg yolk and cream together.

  2. Pour the boiling soup over the egg mixture.

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

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

  2. Celery + white peppertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together853 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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 body of the soup once cooked and sieved.
Butter
Coats the celery and adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Egg yolk
Enriches the soup and thickens it slightly when combined with the hot liquid.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and creaminess, softening the flavour and texture of the soup.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling soup over the egg mixture. Egg yolk can scramble if it meets very hot liquid too fast. Adding the hot soup gradually to the yolk and cream, while stirring, gently warms the yolk so it thickens smoothly instead of curdling.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, butter, egg, 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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