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Cream of Celery Soup

A soup made from celery, onion, parsley, broth, butter, flour, milk, cream, and optional egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Cream of Celery Soup

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cream of Celery Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery

  1. Clean, wash, and finely chop the leaves and coarse stalks of the celery.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter or drippings and add the celery, chopped onion, and parsley.

  3. Cover and cook on low heat, stirring occasionally, until the celery is tender.

  4. Add the broth or hot water and cook slowly until very tender.

  5. Pass the soup through a fine sieve.

Make the roux and finish

  1. In a separate pan, cook the flour in melted butter, then gradually add enough milk to make a quart of soup.

  2. Combine the soup with the roux and bring to a boil until smooth.

  3. Stir in the cream and beaten egg yolks (if using) and 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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery
Forms the main body and flavor of the soup as it softens and breaks down.
Flour
Thickens the soup with the butter roux, giving it a smooth, body-rich texture.
Butter
Carries flavor and cooks the flour into a roux for thickening.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Egg yolks
Enrich and further thicken the soup when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cream and egg yolks. Once the soup is boiling, egg yolks can curdle or scramble if added too hot or boiled after adding, so they should be stirred in gently and the soup served right away.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Garlicfits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, butter, onion, chicken, flour, milk, 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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