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Savory Celery

A stew of tender celery stalks simmered in stock, thickened with roux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 the celery

  1. Select the whitest and tenderest celery stalks and soak them in ice water.

  2. Cut the outer, coarser stalks into 3-inch lengths and stew them in 1 cup of stock, seasoned with onion juice, salt, pepper, and parsley.

  3. Cook covered for 1 hour over low heat.

  4. Drain the cooked stalks and press them in a colander.

Finish the stew

  1. Return the stock to the heat and bring it to a boil.

  2. Add the reserved celery stalks, cut into short lengths, and cook gently until tender.

  3. Thicken the mixture with 1 tablespoon of roux, bring to a boil, 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.

  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
Provide the main body and tender texture of the stew.
Stock
Supplies the liquid base that carries the seasonings and cooks the celery.
Roux
Thickens the stock into a smooth, body-rich sauce.

The step that matters

Thicken with roux at the end. Roux is flour cooked in fat, and it thickens by starch swelling in hot liquid. Adding it to stock that is only lightly simmering, then bringing it to a full boil, lets the starch hydrate evenly and thicken without lumps.

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.

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