Name: Fried Celery, Dresden Style
Ingredients: 4 heads of celery; reduced Allemande sauce; light batter; hot fat for frying; tomato sauce for serving

Why it works: Celery and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fried Celery, Dresden Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery by braising it as previously described.
Mask the celery with reduced Allemande sauce and let it cool.
Once cold, dip the celery pieces in a light batter.
Fry the battered celery in hot fat until golden.
Drain on a cloth and arrange on a round dish.
Garnish and serve with a boat of tomato sauce.

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.

Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Sauce + tomatotop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,469 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Celery + saucetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,360 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).