Why it works: Chervil and chive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 370 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Celery a LA Remoulade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Clean the celery and place it in a salad boat.
In a bowl, combine the shallot, chervil, chives, garlic, salt, and pepper.
Make the sauce
Add the oil, mustard, and vinegar to the mixture.
Stir until the sauce is smooth.
Serve
Serve the sauce 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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Chervil + chivetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together370 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Shallot + cherviltop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together266 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Shallot + chivetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together450 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
-
Shallot + mustardtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together859 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Chive + garlictop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,149 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Oil
- Forms the body of the emulsified sauce, giving it a rich, smooth texture.
- Mustard
- Helps hold the oil and vinegar together as an emulsion and adds sharpness.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the oil.
- Shallot
- Contributes a mild, sharp onion flavour to the sauce.
- Garlic
- Adds pungent aroma that carries through the sauce.
The step that matters
Stir until the sauce is smooth. Oil and vinegar separate unless they are whisked or stirred thoroughly with mustard, which acts as an emulsifier. Stopping early leaves a greasy, broken sauce that does not coat the celery evenly.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, shallot, chervil, chive, garlic, pepper, mustard):
- Capersfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against celery, shallot, chervil, chive, garlic, pepper, mustard. 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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