Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Stewed Tomatoes and Celery
Ingredients
Directions
Stew the tomatoes as usual.
Cut the celery into small pieces.
Add the celery to the tomatoes and cook until the celery is perfectly tender.
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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Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,377 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
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main body, moisture and acidic flavour of the stew.
- Celery
- Adds a crisp-turned-tender texture and a mild, savoury aroma to the stewed tomatoes.
The step that matters
Cooking the celery until perfectly tender. Celery stays fibrous and stringy if it is under-cooked. Cooking it until the cell walls soften in the hot tomato liquid gives an even, tender texture throughout.
“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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