Why it works: Celery and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Garniture De Celeri
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the celery
Scald the celery for 5 minutes.
Drain the celery and cut into pieces.
Braise
In a stewpan, place the celery on a slice of bacon.
Add the ham, bay leaf, lemon slices, and the onion with the clove.
Cover with another slice of bacon and moisten with stock until the celery is covered.
Place the pan on a hot hearth with hot ashes on the cover.
Once cooked, transfer the celery to a deep dish.
Strain the sauce through a fine sieve and pour over the celery.
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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Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,467 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,668 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
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Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,150 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,901 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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 through slow, moist cooking.
- Bacon
- Melts fat into the pan, adding savoury richness to the celery and stock.
- Stock
- Provides the cooking liquid that moistens and gently braises the celery.
The step that matters
Covering the celery with stock. The celery must be fully covered so it cooks evenly in moist heat; any part left exposed can dry out or scorch over the hot ashes.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, ham, lemon, clove):
- Carrotfits better
- Mustardfits better
- Leekfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against celery, ham, lemon, clove. 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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