Name: Fricassee of Celeriac
Ingredients: 2 celery roots; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour; 1 cup rich milk; salt and pepper to taste; 1 egg yolk; 1 tablespoon cream; parsley, minced for garnish

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 ↓

Fricassee of Celeriac

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery

Wash and peel the celery roots, then cut them into dice.
Cook the diced celery in as little water as possible until tender, adding salt near the end.

Make the sauce

In a separate pan, melt the butter and whisk in the flour until smooth but not browned.
Gradually add the milk to the butter and flour mixture, stirring until it boils.
Combine the cooked celery and its water with the sauce, seasoning with salt and pepper.
Beat the egg yolk with the cream and stir it into the sauce off the heat.

Serve

Pour the fricassee into a serving dish, sprinkle with minced parsley, and 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.

Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Celery roots: Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender and mild as they cook.
Butter: Provides fat and richness, and forms the base of the roux.
All-purpose flour: Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce when cooked with the butter.
Milk: Forms the creamy liquid of the sauce, giving body and mild sweetness.
Egg yolk: Enriches and thickens the sauce, adding richness and silky texture.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk and cream off the heat. Egg yolk thickens through gentle heat, and if the sauce is too hot when it is added, the yolk can scramble and turn grainy. Removing the pan from the heat first lets the sauce thicken smoothly without curdling.

Swap the celery

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

Nutmegfits better
Tarragonfits better
Capersfits about as well
Celerythe original

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

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Fricassee of Celeriac