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Celery Au Gratin

A baked dish of boiled celery in a white sauce topped with cheese and buttered crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Celery Au Gratin

Why it works: Milk and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,426 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Celery Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the celery

  1. Wash the celery stalks, scrape, and cut into ½-inch lengths.

  2. Boil in salted water until tender.

Make the sauce

  1. Make a white sauce using half milk and half water from cooking the celery.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place half the cooked celery in a buttered baking dish, cover with half the sauce, and sprinkle with grated cheese.

  2. Add the remaining celery, cover again with sauce and cheese.

  3. Sprinkle with buttered crumbs and bake at 400°F (200°C) until brown.

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.

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.

  1. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  2. Celery + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  3. Celery + cheesetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery stalks
Forms the vegetable body of the dish and becomes tender when boiled.
Milk
Provides the liquid and fat base of the white sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy texture.
Grated cheese
Melts into the sauce and browns on top, adding flavor and a golden crust.
Buttered crumbs
Forms a crisp, browned topping that contrasts with the soft sauce beneath.

The step that matters

Bake until brown. The topping needs enough time in the oven for the crumbs and cheese to brown fully. Stopping early leaves a pale, soft top, while overbaking can dry the sauce.

Swap the celery

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cheese. 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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