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Celery Soup

A creamy soup made with celery, onion, stock, milk, and cream, thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 soup

  1. In a pot, combine the chopped celery, onion, stock, and milk.

  2. Bring to a boil, then simmer gently for 1½ hours.

  3. Strain the soup through a fine sieve.

Thicken and finish

  1. In a saucepan, mix the butter and flour over low heat until smooth.

  2. Add the strained soup to the butter and flour mixture, stirring until it boils.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  4. If desired, stir in the cream just before serving.

  5. Serve with fried bread or toast.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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 as it simmers.
Butter
Carries the flour and adds richness to the thickening base.
Flour
Thickens the soup into a smooth, velvety texture when cooked with butter.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the soup base.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother mouthfeel when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Stirring the strained soup into the butter and flour. Adding liquid to a roux-like mixture while stirring keeps flour from clumping. Stirring until it boils lets the starch swell fully and thicken the soup evenly.

Swap the onion

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

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

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