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Celery Stewed, Spanish Style

A Spanish-style stew of celery simmered with butter, broth, tomato and Espagnole sauce, finished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 ↓

Celery Stewed, Spanish Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery

  1. Clean and wash the celery, cutting the white part into 2-inch pieces.

  2. Parboil the celery for 3 minutes, then immerse in cold water and dry on a napkin.

Cook the celery

  1. In a flat saucepan, melt the butter and add the celery, seasoning with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and sugar.

  2. Cover and simmer until the moisture is reduced.

  3. Add the white broth and reduce on high heat until it glazes and the celery is cooked.

  4. Stir in the tomato sauce and Espagnole sauce, cooking slowly for 10 minutes.

  5. Add the butter and chopped parsley, tossing well over the heat.

Serve

  1. Serve with small toast of marrow around the dish as a garnish.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 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

Celery
Forms the body of the stew and becomes tender as it simmers and glazes.
White broth
Adds liquid that reduces into a glaze, carrying savory flavour onto the celery.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and savory depth to the sauce as it cooks down slowly.
Espagnole sauce
Contributes a rich, thickened brown-sauce body and deeper savory flavour.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the celery glaze and finish smoothly.

The step that matters

Reducing the moisture and glazing the celery. If the celery is not drained and dried after parboiling, excess water dilutes the sauce. Reducing on high heat then concentrates the broth into a glaze that clings to the vegetable instead of pooling.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, butter, pepper, nutmeg, sugar, sauce, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, butter, pepper, nutmeg, sugar, sauce, parsley. 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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