Why it works: Cream and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,787 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Celeriac or Turnip-rooted Celery
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pare the celeriac and soak in cold water for 30 minutes.
In a saucepan, cover the celeriac with boiling water and add salt.
Cook and serve
Boil for 30 to 35 minutes until tender when pierced with a fork.
Drain the celeriac, cut into slices, and dish them up.
Cover with cream sauce and serve.
Optionally, dress with mayonnaise for a salad.
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.
-
Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,787 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Celeriac
- Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and soft when boiled.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the cooking water so the celeriac takes on flavour as it boils.
The step that matters
Boil until tender when pierced with a fork. Celeriac is dense, so it needs to cook through fully. Pierce it with a fork to check that the centre is soft before draining, since undercooked pieces stay firm and bitter.
“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 celeriac recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.