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Cream of Celery Soup

A soup of celery, onion, potato, and milk, thickened with butter and flour.

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

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cream of Celery Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Wash the celery thoroughly, then cut up the stalks and peel the roots.

  2. Place the celery, onion, and potato into a saucepan and cover with cold water.

  3. Boil slowly for one hour, then mash through a colander.

Make the cream

  1. Scald the milk in a double boiler.

  2. Mix the butter with the flour until smooth, then stir into the boiling milk and cook for five minutes, stirring constantly.

  3. Pour the milk mixture into the celery soup and boil for five minutes, stirring continuously.

  4. Season to taste and 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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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 softens and is mashed.
Potato
Its starch thickens the soup and gives it a smoother, fuller texture when mashed.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the soup and adds richness and mild sweetness.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, cream-style consistency when cooked.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the flour blend smoothly and adding flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour and butter into the boiling milk. Flour clumps if added to hot liquid without being smoothed with fat first, and stirring constantly keeps the starch dispersed so the soup thickens evenly without lumps.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, potato, milk, butter, flour):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, potato, milk, butter, flour. 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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