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Cream of Celery Soup

A creamy soup made from boiled celery, onion, water, milk, butter, salt, pepper, and thickened with cornstarch.

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: 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 ↓

Cream of Celery Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the celery base

  1. Boil the chopped celery and onion in 2 quarts of water for 1.5 hours.

  2. Ensure 1 pint of water remains after cooking.

Finish the soup

  1. In a double boiler, heat 1 pint of milk.

  2. Mash and sieve the cooked celery mixture, then add it to the milk.

  3. Stir in the remaining water, salt, pepper, and butter.

  4. Thicken the soup with cornstarch as desired.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 once cooked and sieved.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a smooth, rich texture to the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Cornstarch
Thickens the soup as the starch gelatinises when heated.

The step that matters

Thickening with cornstarch. Cornstarch must be heated in liquid to gelatinise and thicken; added to cold liquid or left unstirred, it clumps or stays thin. Adding it gradually while stirring keeps the soup smooth.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, milk, butter, egg, 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.

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