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Celery Croquettes

A savory dish of mashed celery formed into croquettes, coated in breadcrumbs and served with roast or game.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Celery Croquettes

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Celery Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the celery sauce

  1. Cook the chopped celery in boiling salted water until soft.

  2. Drain the celery and reserve the cooking water.

  3. Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour.

  4. Gradually add the reserved water and cream, stirring until smooth.

  5. Add the salt and cook for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

  6. Remove from heat and stir in the slightly beaten egg.

  7. Cook for an additional 5 minutes.

  8. Mix the celery into the sauce.

Shape and coat

  1. Shape the mixture into croquettes.

  2. Coat the croquettes with breadcrumbs.

Serve

  1. Serve with roast or game dishes.

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

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Celery + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Thickens the butter and cooking liquid into a smooth sauce that holds the croquettes together.
Butter
Enriches the flour base and adds richness to the sauce.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, making the sauce softer and more velvety.
Egg
Sets with gentle heat, binding the mixture so it can be shaped.
Celery
Provides the main flavour and soft texture within the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg. Adding the egg to a hot sauce can scramble it if the sauce is too hot. Remove from heat first, then stir in the beaten egg, so it thickens smoothly and binds the mixture.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, cream, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Jalapenofits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, cream, egg. 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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