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Cream of Celery Soup

A creamy soup made with celery, rice, broth, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cream of Celery Soup

Why it works: Chicken and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Cream of Celery Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a thick saucepan, combine the rice, 1 quart milk, and salt. Cook over medium heat.

  2. Wash and grate the head of celery.

  3. Once the rice is tender, add the chicken or veal broth, remaining milk, and grated celery.

  4. Season to taste and serve hot.

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. Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  3. Rice + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,169 recipes

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

  4. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the soup a smooth, creamy body.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the soup and adds richness and mild sweetness.
Celery
Provides the main flavor and fine texture once grated into the soup.
Chicken or veal broth
Adds savory depth and liquid to thin the soup to a pourable consistency.

The step that matters

Cooking the rice until tender. Rice must be fully softened before the broth and celery go in, because it is the starch that thickens the soup. Undercooked rice leaves the texture gritty and the soup thin.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, milk, rice):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Turmericfits about as well
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, milk, rice. 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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