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Cream of Celery Soup

A soup made by stewing celery, adding butter, salt, cream, and cornstarch, served with toasted wafers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Cream of Celery Soup

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cream of Celery Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Stew the chopped celery in boiling water for 15 minutes.

  2. Add butter and salt to the pot.

  3. Strain out the celery.

  4. Stir in the cream and cornstarch until well combined.

Serve

  1. Serve with salted wafers or bits of dry browned 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.

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

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

  2. Celery + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,863 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  3. Celery + buttertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 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

Celery
Provides the main flavour and body of the soup as it stews in the water.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich mouthfeel and smooth taste.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture.
Cornstarch
Thickens the soup as it is stirred in with the cream.

The step that matters

Stir in the cream and cornstarch until well combined. Cornstarch must be fully dispersed before it thickens, otherwise it can form lumps. Stirring it evenly into the cream first helps it blend smoothly into the hot soup.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Macefits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream. 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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