Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Celery Au Gratin
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the celery
Cut the best parts of the celery into 1-inch lengths.
Cook the celery in boiling salted water until tender.
Drain the celery and return it to the saucepan.
Make the sauce and custard base
Mix the hot milk with the butter and flour.
Pour the milk mixture over the celery.
Season with paprika and salt, simmer for three minutes.
Pour the mixture into a bowl to cool.
Once the celery mixture is cool, beat in the eggs.
Bake and serve
Butter a pudding dish and cover the bottom with fine bread crumbs.
Pour the mixture into the dish.
Cover with more crumbs and dot with butter.
Cover and bake for 30 minutes in a 400°F (200°C) oven until browned.
Serve in the pudding dish.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, 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
- Celery
- Forms the bulk of the dish and provides its main vegetable flavour and texture.
- Eggs
- Set when baked, binding the celery and milk into a sliceable custard.
- Flour
- Thickens the hot milk into a smooth sauce that holds the celery together.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and richness.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the top brown in the oven.
The step that matters
Beat in the eggs only after the mixture cools. Adding beaten eggs to a hot mixture can scramble them and leave lumps. Cooling first lets the eggs blend smoothly and set evenly into a custard when baked.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, flour, egg, bread):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Capersfits better
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, flour, egg, bread. 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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