Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Celery with Parmesan Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Prepare the celery as described in the previous recipe.
Mix some finely grated Parmesan cheese into the Allemande sauce.
Place the celery in a buttered baking dish or shells.
Bake
Sprinkle the top with bread crumbs and additional grated cheese.
Add a small piece of butter on top.
Clean the edges of the dish and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,163 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Celery + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together523 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Parmesan cheese + breadtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together577 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Celery
- Forms the main body of the dish, giving it its bulk and tender-crisp texture when baked.
- Allemande sauce
- Provides a creamy binding that keeps the celery moist and coats it during baking.
- Parmesan cheese
- Adds savory, salty flavor and helps the top brown as it melts and toasts.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp topping that contrasts with the soft celery beneath.
- Butter
- Adds richness and promotes browning on the surface of the topping.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, parmesan cheese, bread, butter):
- Capersfits better
- Parsleyfits about as well
- Garlicfits about as well
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, parmesan cheese, bread, butter. 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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