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Hirino Me Selino

A Greek pork stew with celery, finished with an Avgolemono lemon‑egg sauce.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Hirino Me Selino

Serves 4 persons
Time45 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rinse the meat and drain.

  2. Discard the root end of the celery, separate into stalks, trim and rinse individually under cold running water.

  3. Using the sharp point of a knife, dislodge any suspicion of grit in between its ribbed back.

  4. Cut the celery into 5 cm pieces, using its leaves as well.

  5. Drop the celery into salted boiling water in a large saucepan, about 22–25 cm and boil for 5 minutes, then drain and keep aside.

Braise the pork and celery

  1. In the same saucepan, heat the oil and sauté the meat and then the onion; neither should get brown but just be slightly transparent.

  2. Add the hot water, cover and simmer for 45 minutes, or until the meat is tender.

  3. Season with salt and white pepper, add the celery and cook for a further 10–15 minutes until the celery is very tender.

  4. Turn the heat off and let it stand for at least 5 minutes before you add the sauce.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Prepare the Avgolemono sauce by whisking eggs, lemon juice, and cornflour mixture.

  2. Pour it slowly all over the meat, rotating the saucepan at the same time.

  3. Put back on a very low heat for 5 minutes only, in order to cook the cornflour and thicken the sauce, but on no account let it boil.

  4. Serve with fresh green salad, fresh bread, and, if desired, mashed or roasted potatoes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

507Calories
36 gProtein
33 gFat
17 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 10 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pork100g cooked242
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Saucenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. White pepper + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,658 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Celery + white peppertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together853 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whisked into the lemon sauce, they thicken it and give it a creamy, silky body when gently heated.
Cornflour
Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it body without making it heavy.
Lemons
Provide the sharp acidity that gives the Avgolemono sauce its characteristic tang.
Pork
Gently simmered until tender, it becomes juicy and soft in the hot water.
Celery
Softens during cooking and adds a mild, savoury, slightly vegetal flavour to the stew.

The step that matters

Thickening the egg and lemon sauce. Eggs thicken by gentle heat; if the sauce boils, the egg proteins scramble and it curdles, so it must stay on very low heat.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, celery, onion, sauce, egg, lemon):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, celery, onion, sauce, egg, lemon. 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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