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Celery Consomme Royale

A clear celery consommé thickened with a custard and set into a firm, chilled mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Celery Consomme Royale

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Boil the celery in the stock until tender.

  2. Remove the celery and let the stock cool.

  3. Heat the milk in one saucepan.

  4. Heat the clear stock in another saucepan.

Make the custard

  1. Gradually add the hot milk to the beaten eggs.

  2. In the stock, make a roux by heating the butter and stirring in the flour until smooth.

  3. Season the stock with paprika and salt.

  4. Stir in the egg mixture and cook for one minute until thickened.

  5. Mix the stock and custard off the heat.

Set and cut

  1. Spread the mixture on a flat dish.

  2. Refrigerate until firm.

  3. Cut the firm mixture into cubes or desired shapes.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Celery + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 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

Eggs
Coagulate when heated, thickening the custard and setting it firm when chilled.
Butter
Enriches the stock and, with flour, forms a roux that thickens the liquid.
Flour
Forms a roux with butter that thickens the stock and gives it body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softness to the custard, mellowing its savour.
Celery
Flavours the stock with aroma as it simmers.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg mixture and cook for one minute until thickened. Egg proteins set when heated, so the custard thickens quickly. Overheating or cooking too long can curdle it and leave it grainy, so heat gently and stop as soon as it thickens.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, butter, flour. 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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