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Celery Sauce

A creamy celery sauce made with celery, water, cream, eggs, flour, butter, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Women of the First Congregational Church (Marysville, Ohio) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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. Cut the heads of celery into pieces two or three inches long.

  2. Boil until tender.

Make the sauce

  1. Add to half a pint of cream or milk, the well-beaten yolks of two eggs, a little salt, a bit of butter, pepper, and a little grated nutmeg.

  2. Bring just to the boiling point.

  3. Pour over celery and serve with roast duck.

Alternate method

  1. Chop finely two bunches of celery.

  2. Boil for an hour.

  3. When done, have about one and a half pints of water in your kettle.

  4. Stir in two spoonfuls of flour mixed smooth in cold water.

  5. Boil for ten minutes.

  6. Add two spoonfuls of butter and season with salt and pepper.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

710Calories
20 gProtein
24 gFat
100 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot 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.

By Women of the First Congregational Church (Marysville, Ohio). 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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Celery + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,331 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery
Forms the body of the sauce and gives its flavour once cooked until tender.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the sauce and add richness when gently heated.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a smooth sauce when boiled.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Bringing the egg-enriched sauce just to the boil. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat. If the mixture boils hard, the yolks can scramble and curdle, leaving the sauce grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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