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Cream of Celery Soup

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, cook the rice with ½ cup of milk and 1 teaspoon of salt until tender.

  2. Grate the white stalks of the celery into the rice and simmer gently.

  3. Once the rice is tender, rub it through a sieve back into the saucepan.

Finish the soup

  1. Gradually add the broth to the mixture, stirring until creamy.

  2. If needed, add more milk to achieve the desired consistency.

  3. Heat the soup until scalding hot, then season with salt, white pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg.

  4. Serve immediately.

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. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  3. Celery + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,331 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,779 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Cooked and sieved, it thickens the soup and gives it a smooth, creamy body.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, softening the soup's flavour and texture.
Chicken or veal broth
Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries the celery flavour.
Celery
Grated into the rice, it contributes the main flavour and aroma of the soup.

The step that matters

Rubbing the rice through a sieve. Pressing the cooked rice through a sieve breaks it into fine particles that thicken the soup evenly. Skipping or rushing this leaves a grainy texture instead of a smooth, creamy one.

Swap the white pepper

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

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

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