Skip to main content
Main

Fricassee of Celeriac

A creamy celery root fricassee made with butter, milk, flour, egg yolk, and seasoned with salt, pepper, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Henrietta Latham Dwight · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fricassee of Celeriac

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery root

  1. Wash, peel, and dice the celery roots.

  2. Cook the diced celery in as little water as possible until tender; when nearly done, add a little salt.

Make the sauce

  1. Make a sauce by cooking two tablespoonfuls of butter and one tablespoonful of flour together until smooth without browning.

  2. Add a cup of rich milk to the sauce; when it boils, add the celery dice and the water in which they were boiled, seasoning to taste with salt and pepper.

  3. Beat one egg yolk with a tablespoonful of cream and stir carefully into the sauce; remove from heat immediately.

Serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a vegetable dish, sprinkle with a little minced parsley, and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

842Calories
28 gProtein
32 gFat
110 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
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 Henrietta Latham Dwight. 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavor, while cooking with flour builds its base.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth sauce that holds the celery together.
Milk
Forms the liquid body of the sauce, giving it a soft, creamy texture.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the sauce gently when stirred in off the heat.
Celery root (in the method)
Provides the main vegetable body and mild, earthy flavor of the dish.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk and cream. Egg yolk thickens through gentle heat, but if the sauce boils after it is added, the yolk can scramble and turn grainy. Stirring carefully and removing the pan from heat right away protects the smooth texture.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, cream, flour, egg, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes