Skip to main content
Soup

Celery

A soup of celery, stock, milk, and sago, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Celery

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the sago in cold water.

Make the soup

  1. Boil the celery in the stock for 10 minutes, then remove it.

  2. Stir in the sago and continue stirring until it is transparent and the stock thickens.

  3. Pour in the milk and bring to a boil.

  4. Season with salt and pepper, then serve.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Celery + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

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

  3. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Sago
Thickens the stock as its starch swells and turns the soup translucent when cooked.
Celery
Flavours the stock and gives the soup its main vegetable body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the flavour of the soup.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the celery flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring in the sago. Sago must be stirred constantly as it goes in, or it can clump and settle on the bottom of the pan. Its starch needs to cook fully to thicken the stock and turn clear.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, 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.

You might also like

Cream of CeleryCream of Celery37 recipesIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and SpinachIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and Spinach448 recipesClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd SoupClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd Soup65 recipesMock Bisque SoupMock Bisque Soup51 recipes