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Stewed Celery No. 2

A creamy stew of celery cooked in milk, thickened with egg yolks and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,399 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stewed Celery No. 2

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery

  1. Cut the white part of the celery into small pieces.

  2. Blanch the celery in boiling water, then drain in a colander.

Stew the celery

  1. Heat the milk in a stewpan until boiling.

  2. Add the celery to the milk and stew gently until tender.

  3. Remove the celery with a skimmer.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Stir the beaten egg yolks and cream into the milk.

  2. Cook until thickened, then pour over the celery 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. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  3. Celery + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,863 recipes

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

  4. Milk + celerytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

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

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base in which the celery stews and becomes the sauce.
Celery
Provides the main vegetable body and flavor of the dish.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk as they cook, giving the sauce body.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the sauce a smoother, silkier texture.

The step that matters

Cook until thickened. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat; if the sauce gets too hot or boils, the proteins can curdle and turn grainy. Keep the heat low and stir steadily.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, cream. 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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