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Celery Stuffing

A celery and breadcrumb mixture used as a turkey stuffing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Celery Stuffing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Chop the celery fine.

  2. Rub the butter into the bread crumbs.

  3. Add the chopped celery, eggs, salt, and pepper to the crumbs and mix well.

Stuff and wrap the turkey

  1. Stuff the mixture into the turkey, including a little in the breast.

  2. Sew the turkey securely.

  3. Wring a large square of cotton cloth out of cold water and dredge it thickly with flour.

  4. Wrap the turkey in the cloth and plunge it into boiling water.

Boil

  1. Boil for 20 minutes per pound, rapidly for the first 15 minutes, then moderate the boiling.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Celery + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,110 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Form the bulk of the stuffing and absorb moisture from the other ingredients.
Eggs
Bind the stuffing together so it holds its shape when cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and coats the crumbs for a tender, flavorful stuffing.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, savory flavor to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Boil for 20 minutes per pound, rapidly for the first 15 minutes, then moderate the boiling. Starting with a rapid boil brings the cloth-wrapped turkey up to temperature quickly, and then a gentler boil cooks it through without the outside breaking apart. Keeping the water at a steady, controlled simmer protects the wrapping and the bird.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, egg, butter, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, egg, butter, pepper. 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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