Skip to main content
Main

Celery a LA Parmesan

A baked celery dish topped with a Parmesan cheese sauce and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 a LA Parmesan

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut the celery into 3-inch pieces.

  2. Stew the celery in the milk until tender.

Make the sauce

  1. Drain the milk and make a sauce by thickening it with Allinson fine wheatmeal, then add the cheese and season to taste.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the celery in a pie dish, pour the sauce over it, and sprinkle breadcrumbs on top.

  2. Dot the top with small pieces of butter.

  3. Bake for 15 minutes in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Celery + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together523 recipes

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

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 and becomes tender when stewed in milk.
Milk
Cooks the celery and, thickened, forms the moist sauce that coats it.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and melts into the sauce.
Allinson fine wheatmeal
Thickens the milk into a sauce.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top brown as it melts.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Flour must be fully blended into the milk so it thickens smoothly without lumps. Stirring as it heats lets the starch swell evenly, giving a sauce that coats the celery rather than a grainy one.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Celerythe original
  3. Basilfits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, parmesan cheese, 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.

You might also like

Cream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesMacaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesCheese MakingCheese Making50 recipesCheese FrittersCheese Fritters34 recipes