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Stewed Celery

A creamy stew of celery cooked in broth, thickened with butter, flour, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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. Clean the celery thoroughly and cut it into small pieces.

Make the stew

  1. Stew the celery in the broth until tender.

  2. Add the cream, butter, and flour to thicken the mixture.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg if desired.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender as it stews.
Broth
Cooks the celery and supplies liquid for the stew.
Rich cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, and helps give the sauce a smooth finish.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a sauce as it cooks with the cream and butter.

The step that matters

Adding the cream, butter, and flour to thicken the mixture. Flour needs to be cooked in the hot liquid long enough to swell and thicken; adding it too early or stirring poorly can leave lumps or a pasty taste. Keep the mixture gently simmering and stir while it thickens.

Swap the nutmeg

The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, cream, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Turmericfits about as well

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