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Cream of Celery Soup

A creamy soup made with celery, rice, milk, and broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cream of Celery Soup

Why it works: Chicken and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Cream of Celery Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Cook the rice very soft in a double boiler with half the milk and the salt.

  2. Grate the celery into the remaining milk and warm it slowly.

  3. Strain the cooked rice through a fine sieve.

Finish the soup

  1. Mix the strained rice with the celery.

  2. Add the heated broth and white pepper.

  3. Stir gently over medium heat for a few moments before serving.

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 + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Rice + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,169 recipes

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

  4. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Breaks down when cooked soft and strained, giving the soup a thick, smooth body.
Milk
Provides creaminess and a mild sweetness, rounding out the soup's texture.
Celery
Supplies the main flavor and aroma of the soup.
Chicken or veal broth
Adds savory depth and liquid, thinning the purée to a soup consistency.

The step that matters

Warming the milk and celery slowly. Heating milk too fast can scorch it or make it curdle, leaving a grainy texture. Gentle heat keeps the milk smooth and lets the celery flavor infuse evenly.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, rice, milk, celery. 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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