Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Celery Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Chop the celery into small pieces.
Make the soup
Put the celery in a saucepan with boiling water, salt, and sugar.
Boil until tender, then pass through a sieve.
Add the cream and stock, bring to a boil, and serve.
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.
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Celery + white peppertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together853 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
-
Celery + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,863 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
-
Cream + white peppertop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,439 recipes
-
Celery + sugartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,794 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
- Forms the main body and flavour of the soup once boiled and sieved.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the finished soup.
- Stock
- Adds savoury depth and liquid to the soup base.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, cream, sugar):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against celery, cream, sugar. 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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