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Ragout Op Celery

A stew of boiled celery simmered in gravy with mushroom ketchup, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Ragout Op Celery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery

  1. Wash the celery well and boil for 30 minutes.

  2. Remove the celery and place it in cold water for 15 minutes, then strain well.

Finish and serve

  1. Stew the celery in good gravy with a little mushroom ketchup, salt, and pepper.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Celery + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,006 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Celery + ketchuptop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together456 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Mushroom + ketchuptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery
Provides the main body and tender texture of the ragout.
Good gravy
Supplies the savoury liquid that the celery stews in, adding moisture and depth.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savoury, umami flavour to the stewing liquid.

The step that matters

Chilling and straining the celery after boiling. Boiling softens the celery, and the cold-water rest firms it and helps it hold its shape. Draining it well keeps excess water from thinning the gravy during stewing.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, ketchup, pepper):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Parsleyfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, ketchup, 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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