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Stewed Celery

Stewed celery is a dish of boiled or stewed celery roots served with béchamel or thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 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 ↓

Stewed Celery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut five or six fine roots of celery to the length of the inside of the dish in which they are to be served.

  2. Free them from all the coarser leaves and from the green tops, trim the root ends neatly, and wash the vegetable in several waters until it is as clean as possible.

Cook and serve

  1. Either boil the celery tender with a little salt and a bit of fresh butter the size of a walnut in just sufficient water to cover it, drain it well, arrange it on a very hot dish, and pour a thick béchamel or white sauce over it; or stew it in broth or common stock, and serve it with very rich, thickened Espagnole or brown gravy.

  2. A cheap and expeditious method of preparing this dish is to slice the celery, simmer it until soft in as much good broth as will only just cover it, and add a thickening of flour and butter, or arrow‑root, with some salt, pepper, and a small cupful of cream.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

191Calories
2 gProtein
20 gFat
4 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Walnut1 walnut half (4g)26
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 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. Celery + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  4. Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery
Is the main vegetable, cooked until tender so it becomes soft and mild in flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and giving a smooth finish to the dish.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the cooked celery.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce that clings to the celery.

The step that matters

Simmer until just soft in just enough broth. Using only as much liquid as just covers the celery concentrates its flavour. Too much liquid dilutes it, and overcooking turns the celery mushy.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Walnutthe original
  2. Beansfits about as well
  3. Almondfits less well
  4. Chestnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, celery, butter, 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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