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Cream of Chicken Soup

A light soup made with chicken broth, flour, cream, and celery.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Cream of Chicken Soup

Why it works: Chicken and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,375 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Cream of Chicken Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Heat the chicken broth in a pot until hot.

  2. In a bowl, mix the flour with the cream until smooth.

  3. Strain the flour and cream mixture through a fine sieve into the hot broth.

  4. Stir constantly until the soup thickens.

Serve

  1. Serve with tiny heart stalks of celery.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Flour + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cream + celerytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,863 recipes

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

  4. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Chicken + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the cream and broth as it heats, giving the soup body.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel to the soup.
Chicken broth
Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries its savory flavor.

The step that matters

Strain the flour and cream mixture into the hot broth. Straining removes flour lumps so the thickener disperses evenly. Stirring constantly while it heats keeps starch from clumping and scorching, so the soup thickens smoothly.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, flour, 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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