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Celery Sauce

A sauce made by boiling celery, then simmering with butter, flour, cream or egg yolks, and seasoning with pepper or cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 13 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. Slice the white part of three to five heads of young tender celery; peel it if not very young, and boil it in salt and water for twenty minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. After draining the boiled celery, put it into half a pint of veal broth or gravy and let it stew until it is quite soft; then add an ounce and a half of butter mixed with a dessert spoonful of flour, and a quarter of a pint of thick cream or the yolks of three eggs.

  2. The French, after boiling the celery cut very small for about twenty minutes, drain and chop it; then put it with a slice of butter into a stewpan, season it with pepper, salt, and nutmeg, keep it stirred over the fire for two or three minutes, dredge in a dessert spoonful of flour, and when this has lost its raw taste, pour in a sufficient quantity of white gravy to moisten the celery and allow it to boil for twenty minutes longer.

  3. A very good common celery sauce is made by simply stewing the celery cut into inch-lengths in butter until it begins to be tender; then add a spoonful of flour, allow it to brown a little, and add half a pint of good broth or beef gravy, seasoning with pepper or cayenne.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

704Calories
20 gProtein
24 gFat
100 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Vealnot 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 Eliza Acton. 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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Celery + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Celery
Forms the body of the sauce and gives its mild, fresh flavour once cooked soft.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavour while the celery stews.
Flour
Thickens the butter and broth into a smooth, body-giving sauce.
Veal broth
Supplies the liquid that cooks the celery and forms the sauce base.
Thick cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the finished sauce.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce, giving it a smooth, rounded texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour into the butter. The flour must be stirred and cooked for a short time until its raw taste is gone, otherwise the sauce tastes pasty. Letting it brown slightly deepens flavour, but scorching gives bitterness.

Swap the celery

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, cream, butter, 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.

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