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Soup

Celery Soup

A light soup made with chopped celery, rice, milk, and broth, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Celery Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a pot, combine chopped celery and rice with enough water to cover.

  2. Slowly stew until the rice and celery can be rubbed through a coarse sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. In a separate pot, heat the milk and broth together.

  2. Season the mixture to taste and serve hot.

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.

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. Rice + chickentop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Celery + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,169 recipes

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

  5. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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, once stewed and sieved, the body of the soup.
Rice
Thickens the soup as it stews and helps the celery break down into a smooth purée.
Milk
Adds richness and a mild sweetness, softening the vegetable flavour.
Chicken or veal broth
Adds savoury depth and salt-based seasoning to the soup base.

The step that matters

Stew until the rice and celery can be rubbed through a sieve. Stewing long enough softens the fibres of the celery and starch of the rice so they pass through a coarse sieve smoothly. Stopping early leaves a grainy, stringy texture.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Turmericfits about as well
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

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