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Sauce

Celery Sauce

A creamy celery sauce made by stewing celery in broth, then adding cream and butter‑flour roux, seasoned with pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter 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 Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash six or eight heads and take off the outer leaves.

  2. Cut the heads into bits three or four inches long.

Make the sauce

  1. Stew them until tender in half a pint of broth or white gravy.

  2. Add two spoonfuls of cream and an ounce of butter rolled in flour.

  3. Season with pepper and salt and simmer the whole together.

Use the leaves

  1. Use the leaves to flavor soup that will be strained.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

614Calories
14 gProtein
18 gFat
97 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed. 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. See the original page.

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. Cream + buttertop 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. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky body to the sauce.
Butter and flour
Fat and flour together thicken the liquid and give it a rounder texture.
Broth
Provides the cooking liquid that softens the celery and carries its flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the butter rolled in flour. Flour thickens only when it is dispersed in hot liquid and simmered. If it is dropped in as lumps or not stirred through, it clumps and leaves the sauce pasty or floury. Simmering afterward cooks out the raw flour taste.

“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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