Why it works: Celery and cheese work together. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 647 recipes. Both carry gamma-decalactone, which smells peach, creamy. The science ↓
Celery Fried in Batter
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the celery
Trim the root portion of the celery smooth and cut the stalks to 4 or 5 inches long.
Cook the celery in boiling salted water for 10 minutes.
Dry the celery quickly on a thick towel.
Fry and serve
Dip the celery in fritter batter.
Fry in deep hot fat until golden brown.
Drain on soft paper and arrange on a folded napkin.
Serve with grated cheese.
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.
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.
-
Celery + cheesetop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together647 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Celery roots
- Serve as the main vegetable, becoming tender after boiling and crisp-coated when fried.
- Fritter batter
- Forms a crisp, golden coating that seals in moisture during frying.
- Deep frying fat
- Cooks the batter quickly and browns it, creating a crisp exterior.
- Grated cheese
- Adds savory flavor as a finishing topping after frying.
The step that matters
Dry the celery quickly on a thick towel. Surface moisture left after boiling would turn to steam in the hot fat and make the batter soggy or cause it to slip off. Drying well helps the batter adhere and brown evenly.
“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
Cream of Celery Soup113 recipes
Macaroni and Cheese102 recipes
Cheese Making50 recipes
Cheese Fritters34 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.