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Celery Sauce

A sauce made from celery, flour, butter, and milk, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 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

Make the celery

  1. Mix two tablespoonfuls of flour with half a teacupful of butter.

  2. Have ready a pint of boiling milk.

  3. Stir the flour and butter into the milk.

  4. Take three heads of celery, cut into small bits, and boil for a few minutes in water.

  5. Strain off the water.

  6. Put the celery into the melted butter.

  7. Keep it stirred over the fire for five or ten minutes.

  8. Boil a head of celery until quite tender.

  9. Put it through a sieve.

Finish the sauce

  1. Put the yolk of an egg in a basin, and beat it well with the strained juice of a lemon.

  2. Add the celery and a couple of spoonfuls of liquor in which the turkey was boiled.

  3. Salt and pepper to taste.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

616Calories
22 gProtein
9 gFat
110 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
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 F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Celery + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

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

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth, body-rich sauce.
Butter (in the method)
Carries the flour and celery, adding richness and a silky mouthfeel.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into a creamy sauce.
Celery
Provides the main flavour and, once sieved, the sauce's body.
Egg yolk (in the method)
Enriches and thickens the sauce, giving it a smoother, richer texture.
Lemon juice (in the method)
Adds acidity that brightens the rich celery flavour.

The step that matters

Beating the egg yolk with lemon juice. Adding the hot sauce too quickly can scramble the yolk. Beating the yolk well with the lemon juice and adding the celery mixture gradually helps keep it smooth and thickened.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, 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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