Skip to main content
Main

Savory Celery

A stew of celery simmered in stock, seasoned with onion juice, salt, pepper, parsley, and thickened with roux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Savory Celery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Select the whitest and tenderest stalks of celery.

  2. Soak the selected stalks in ice water.

  3. Cut the outer, coarser stalks into three-inch lengths.

Make the stew

  1. Stew the cut stalks in 1 cup of stock.

  2. Season the stew with ½ teaspoon onion juice, salt, pepper, and parsley.

  3. Cook the stew covered for 1 hour on low heat.

  4. Drain the cooked stalks in a colander.

  5. Press the drained stalks.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the stock to the heat.

  2. Bring the stock to a boil.

  3. Add the reserved stalks to the boiling stock.

  4. Cut the added stalks into short lengths.

  5. Cook the stalks gently until tender.

  6. Thicken the stock with a good spoonful of roux and boil briefly.

  7. Serve.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery stalks
Form the body of the dish, giving its mild flavour and tender texture.
Stock
Acts as the cooking liquid that carries flavour through the stew.
Roux
Thickens the stock, as its starch swells when heated.
Onion juice
Adds a light savoury aroma to the stew.

The step that matters

Thicken the stock with roux. Starch in the roux only thickens properly once the liquid is hot, and a brief boil cooks the flour and lets the stock set evenly. Adding it to cold or lukewarm stock can leave lumps and a floury taste.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, pepper, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, pepper, parsley. 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.

More celery stew recipes

Spanish 4 See all 28 →

You might also like

Cream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCelery CroquettesCelery Croquettes16 recipesCelery Cream SoupCelery Cream Soup15 recipesCelery Seed InfusionCelery Seed Infusion10 recipes