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Celery is genuinely one of my favorite parts of soups that use them. I LOVE the flavor or celery, and it is even better when it picks up the rest of the flavors of the dish.
To answer yours and the other questions about “why this ingredient”, the answer is very simple. Some people like it.
If you don’t, then don’t use it, problem solved.
...celery has a flavor?
I used to think that it didn’t but then my CSA (local farm) sent me some locally grown celery and the taste was astounding. Much smaller stalks but the flavor was incredible and I realized there is a celery flavor.
Yep. If you've ever tried Old Bay seasoning, it's the dominant flavor in that. Apologies to the state of Maryland, but I find it foul.
Of course you could also just bite into a stalk, you'll taste it.
Do you also think that salt is too spicy?
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.
Which part of the celery? Only North America sticks to using the stalk only like it's some miracle growth. Most European cuisine discarded stalk for centuries, using only the root for soups and stews as a staple. It wasn't until fairly recently when celery stalk started seeing use in salads in Europe.
Yep, exactly. If it's palpably in the dish then it wasn't chopped finely enough or cooked long enough.
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.
Raw celery with peanut butter is a good snack
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.
Celery is part of the mirepoix trinity. Celery, carrots and onions , cooked low and slow in fat before adding to soup. It makes a sweet and savoury vegetable soup base.
What a day to be alive! A person called StinkyFingerItchyBum has just taught me about mirepoix. I'm disgusted, enlightened, and grateful. Thank you!
Or the Holy Trinity of Cajun and creole cooking, celery, onions, and bell pepper.
I like celery, but am really interested to learn the answer here. The other ingredient that gets added to everything is onions. Fwiw I know the answer to that one: they're full of sugar. "First, soften some onions..." is basically a way of adding sweetness to food
Yep and when those onion sugars caramelize, which adds a ton of flavor complexity. That one makes immediate sense to me. I actually like to add onions at various stages of soupmaking (for some recipes) so you get a variety of pungency and sweetness.
Celery though? I taste the same flavor whether it's raw or cooked to mush.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
I don't care for crunch in soup, but a like the celery flavor. I've added celery seeds to things I don't want actual celery in. I'll make stock with celery, onions, and carrots, and then strain them out.
It’s one of the those aromatic vegetables (along with carrots and onions, etc. ) that for most people (obviously not yourself) adds a background flavor that is not overpowering or offensive. It makes your soup taste like soup instead of salty chicken-water or bean-water. Its also fairly inexpensive compared to more meats and spices.
Finally, someone else who hates celery.
Everyone I know loves it, and puts it in everything.
I hate celery as a vegetable, I like it in mirepoix as a flavour.
Have you considered that everyone you know are actually rabbits in disguise?
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