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Celery and Mushrooms À LA Crême

A baked dish of celery and mushrooms in a sauce of onion, flour, egg, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Evora Bucknum Perkins · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Celery and Mushrooms À LA Crême

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Slice 1¼ quarts of celery into inch-thick slices and quarter or eighths 1 cup of mushrooms.

  2. Cook celery and mushrooms separately and drain.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, heat ¼ cup oil and melted butter, add ¼–½ cup chopped onion, ¾ cup flour, 1 egg or yolk, 1 tsp chopped parsley, and salt.

  2. Simmer the onion mixture, add flour, then add boiling water to make a stiff sauce (about 1 pint); when smooth, remove from heat, add salt, parsley, and beaten egg.

  3. Use the liquid drained from celery and mushrooms with water in the sauce.

Bake and serve

  1. Layer the sauce, cooked celery, and mushrooms in a baking dish, topping with sauce.

  2. Sprinkle with crumbs or cornmeal, bake and brown in the oven.

  3. Optionally, add a little garlic, a small quantity of cream, and a small amount of strained tomato to the sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

712Calories
23 gProtein
20 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
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 Evora Bucknum Perkins. 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. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 sauce so it holds its shape and coats the vegetables.
Egg
Binds the sauce and helps it set as it cooks.
Mushrooms
Add savory, earthy flavor and a tender texture to the layers.
Celery (in the method)
Provides the main bulk and a crisp-tender texture under the sauce.
Oil
Carries flavor and helps form the roux-like base of the sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour into the sauce. Flour must be fully cooked and smoothed into the hot fat and liquid so the sauce thickens evenly without lumps or a raw starchy taste.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, flour, egg, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, flour, egg, parsley. 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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