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Soup

Cream of Cheese Soup

A creamy soup made with milk, cheese, butter, flour, onion juice, celery salt, nutmeg, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Cream of Cheese Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. Pour the milk into a double boiler and heat until scalding.

  2. In a separate bowl, blend the butter and flour until smooth.

  3. Thicken the milk with the butter and flour mixture.

  4. Mix in the onion juice, celery salt, and grated nutmeg.

Finish and serve

  1. When ready to serve, add the grated cheese and stir until melted.

  2. Season with salt, white pepper, and a pinch of cayenne.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries the other flavors.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the milk into a smooth, creamy body.
Grated cheese
Adds rich flavor and body, melting smoothly into the warm soup.

The step that matters

Add the cheese off the heat. Cheese turns grainy or stringy when overheated, because its proteins tighten and its fat separates. Adding it at serving time and stirring until just melted keeps the soup smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cheese, celery, butter, nutmeg, flour, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cheese, celery, butter, nutmeg, flour, 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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