It’s winter so I find myself eating more soups and stews. They can be so good on a cold day.
But IMO celery tastes horrible and only subtracts from the flavor of soup by covering up other flavors. Why is it such a common ingredient? Do people actually like enjoy or is it serving some other purpose?
(Yes I avoid it in other foods too. Not to go off topic but water chestnuts are a fantastic substitute if you like the crunch. Try them instead of celery next time you make stuffing.)
Finally, someone else who hates celery.
Everyone I know loves it, and puts it in everything.
I used to hate it when I was a kid but I quite enjoy it now. Same with cinnamon.
Have you considered that everyone you know are actually rabbits in disguise?
I have considered this, as the only reason anyone would willingly eat celery.
Water Chestnuts are a fantastic substitute if you like the crunch.
Your opinion of celery vs water chestnuts is apparently the exact reverse of mine.
Cool, wish I could trade ya.
I still have strong memories of a dish my mother used to make a few times a year that prominently included water chestnuts and the sinking feeling I would get as I took my first bite. Blegh
If the celery in soup is crunchy or even detectible as celery, the soup is being made wrong. It should melt into the dish along with the onions and garlic. The only part of the mirepoix/trinity that should possibly be detectable should be the bell pepper or carrot, and even then they should be very broken down and no longer have a distinct flavor by themselves.
This post has nothing to do with texture. OP is complaining about the flavor of celery.
Yeah, and the flavor doesn’t stand out if it breaks down all the way. Their mention of crunch was a clue that they encounter chunks of it, which I agree are nasty in soup.
It does to some people, me included
Thanks. I think my side note about water chestnuts is throwing people off? Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that.
Water chestnuts are delicious though…so crunchy too
They don’t taste like yummy celery though, they taste like water chestnuts. Which don’t taste bad, it just doesn’t taste like celery.
Honestly they are usually in Asian foods Ive eaten and seem to only add crunch…but now I’m curious
40 people showing off their lack of reading comprehension by upvoting that comment.
Yep, exactly. If it’s palpably in the dish then it wasn’t chopped finely enough or cooked long enough.
That’s interesting… I like getting chunks of carrot and celery in my soups. I deliberately cut them large, about as large as you can get whilst fitting on a spoon, for that reason.
Sounds like OP would hate your soup
I appreciate that large chunks are easy to avoid… but that taste lingers, ew.
Carrots get sweet when boiled in a stew, it’s lovely
I 100% agree with your celery position.
I make my stock with different veggies than my soup. I’ll do a mirepoix both times but when I’m making stock I dice everything and when I make the soup I want big chewable veggies.
And if it is done right it can add a dimension of flavor. Carrot and onion develop a bit of sweetness when cooked a while. Nothing inherently wrong with that, but it’s not exactly what you’re looking for in a bowl of chicken noodle. Celery, being disgusting when raw, doesn’t do that and helps break that pattern up.
Celery, being disgusting when raw[…]
You take that back!
You take that back!
Spiderman’s pointing
this is the way
I hate the flavor so I still usually notice it even when it’s totally broken down beyond mush.
Raw celery’s crunchy texture is kinda nice but I agree that doesn’t go with soup.
Yes, I genuinely enjoy the flavor of celery and distinctly miss the flavor when it’s absent. I grew up eating it raw with peanut butter, or melted/spreadable cheese. I grew up thinking it mostly tasted like water and was just a good vehicle for other flavors, but as my palate developed I noticed, and loved, the flavor more and more. In soups especially.
They say it takes something like twelve tries of a new flavor for your body to stop being afraid of it and actually enjoy it, and that most disliked foods are this kind of instinctual rejection. Maybe just try to force it a dozen times? I know that’s not pleasant advice, and I only recommend it if avoiding celery is something that will cause you life difficulties, such as in social situations.
I’m learning today celery has an actual flavor…and I’m perfectly aware of mirepoix.
Same experience, just crunchy water or when cooked down will soak up whatever flavor you give it. Have also grown to recognize and enjoy the flavor even more but it’s still just incredibly mild/subtle unless eating it straight up. Coincidentally I feel the same way as the people complaining about it but with bell peppers or fennel instead. Chicken salad, soups and stews, Chinese food, all delicious with celery and onion combo. I’ll even substitute celery for a green veg in something like a curry instead of peas which I find too sweet, for example. I got the yummy cilantro gene too lol perception and sensitivity are a hell of a thing
I grew up eating it raw with peanut butter
I did too. Sometimes people would call it “ants on a log” and stick a few raisins on top. The celery crunch was nice but I always wanted maximum PB to cover the flavor. Later I realized it was way better without the celery at all, like just on bread (as PB&J of course).
Anyway, I’ve definitely crossed the dozen threshold. Probably ten dozen. I’m always picking it out of my meal when I try a new Chinese dish.
Sensitivity varies, and I find celery to be a nice and subtle flavor like onions and carrots on soup. Love celery with peanut butter on it, although for the crunch as the peanut butter totally overpowers it.
Some people are more sensitive to different flavors.
Not sure if anyone answered the actual question but a reason celery is included is, in addition to being part of the traditional mirepoix, because the pectin content breaks down and results in a just so slightly thicker stock
That’s the kind of answer I was looking for, thanks!
I wonder how much pectin is in peppers? I usually think of it coming from fruit and botanically those technically are.
Commercial pectin products often come from processed apple skins, and some other fruits but mostly from the skins anyway, so you’re spot on
No idea if peppers will replicate the stock texture of celery but I imagine it can’t matter too much. You probably have to be extremely sensitive and test a lot of samples to tell the difference for that kind of subtle texture
I personally like celery so I don’t share your problem but I rely more on boiled potatoes anyway in my soups/stews for the starch as a mild thickener. I also love potatoes (:
Edit: here’s a source I used https://pickyourown.org/pectin_levels_in_fruit.php
I like celery. I add it when making stock (both ribs and leaves), chop up a few ribs and cook it in soup with carrots and onion, and I like to eat it raw as a snack.
I’m asking why it’s in so many canned soups and restaurant soups and even recipes. By all means make whatever you like at home.
Popular foods at home are popular in the store and restaurants!
I believe the saying is: The plural of anecdote is not data.
I don’t think you’ll like the social sciences lol
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Maybe a better way of saying it is that a set of bricks is not a house. The organization and methodology makes data more than just a collection of assorted incidents. That applies even in social sciences.
I love celery and hate water chestnuts. Everyone’s different.
When I make soup my wife always tells me I put too much celery. I never feel like it’s enough.
I used to hate both, now I love them both. So not only are we different from each other but also from ourselves temporally.
They do it bc that’s how they learned it in culinary school / that’s how the recipe goes. It adds a bitter flavor to balance onion and carrot. You don’t need it and you can replace it with something else.
I just skip it when I make soup, and don’t feel like anything is missing 🤷
Me too, I often skip it and my soups are fine.
I feel the same as you, my wife loves celery and puts it on everything but I feel like it subtracts flavors on most stuff. She eats raw celery all the time, I can maybe stand it with a lot of ranch next to some buffalo wings
Celery contains nitrates naturally, which are carcinogenic.
Celery is used because it’s cheap…and it’s bitter balancing onions and other cheap stock items that tend to be sweet. A stock shouldn’t be sweet or bitter because it’s something you “work up”.
“Everybody” doesn’t use it tho. Some stocks are “garbage can” stocks, using whatever unservable scraps that come from food preparation…others are from ingredients purchased to make the stock like a Mirpoix (the most common stock base that uses celery).
There are lots of people like you that say celery ruins stock…there are many others that say bell peppers ruin stock…but then there are core stocks made from bell peppers.
Just do what tastes good.
What kind of weirdo doesn’t like celery? Next you’re going to tell me rhubarb is too tart, or you have to cook fennel.
I fucking hate fennel, but I couldn’t possibly be more indifferent to celery. Ive never even considered it to have much taste. Fennel and licorice, though? VILE.
Rhubarb is weird but I have nothing against it. I like fennel, cooked or not, seeds too.
Fennel, anise, and licorice are such good flavors!
Do you also think that salt is too spicy?
As someone who disliked celery in the past, I still find it enriches vegetable soups a lot. And by now I actually like the taste of cooked(!) celery. So yes, I would say most people just like it.
