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Sauce

Celery Sauce

A sauce made from stewed celery, pepper vinegar, cream or milk, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Celery Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery

  1. Chop the celery into pieces half an inch long to fill a pint measure.

  2. Stew the celery in a small quantity of water until tender.

Finish the sauce

  1. Add the pepper vinegar, salt, and pepper.

  2. Pour in the cream or milk, then add a sufficient quantity of drawn butter.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Celery + vinegartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,627 recipes

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

  5. Celery + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,863 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery
Provides the main bulk and vegetable flavor of the sauce once stewed soft.
Pepper vinegar
Adds sharpness that brightens the rich, mild celery and cream.
Cream or milk
Supplies moisture and richness, giving the sauce a smooth, creamy body.
Drawn butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stew the celery until tender. Celery must be fully softened before the liquid is added, because firm pieces stay fibrous and will not blend into a smooth sauce.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Peppermintfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, cream, butter. 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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