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To Make Celery Sauce

A sauce made from stewed celery, mace, nutmeg, butter and flour, finished with cream, wine, and catsup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.) · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

To Make Celery Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash a bunch of white celery very clean.

  2. Set it over the fire in a silver or tin saucepan, with a little water, to stew until it is very tender.

Make the sauce

  1. Put a blade of mace in it.

  2. Grate in a little nutmeg.

  3. Add a piece of butter rolled in flour.

  4. Add ½ pint of sweet cream.

  5. Shake it well around and boil them together.

Finish

  1. When near done, add a little white wine and catsup to your taste.

  2. Let it boil once up, and it is done.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

575Calories
14 gProtein
14 gFat
97 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Macenot 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 Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.). 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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,331 recipes

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Celery + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 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 bulk of the sauce and gives it a soft, tender body when stewed.
Butter and flour
Flour thickens the liquid as it heats, while butter adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Sweet cream (in the method)
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.
White wine
Adds a bright acidity and aroma that lifts the rich, creamy flavour.
Mace
Contributes a warm, aromatic flavour to the sauce.
Nutmeg
Contributes a warm, sweet aroma that complements the cream and celery.

The step that matters

Adding the butter rolled in flour. Flour must be stirred and boiled through the liquid so its starch swells and thickens evenly. If it is left still or added in lumps, the sauce stays floury and uneven.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, butter, flour, nutmeg. 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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