Why it works: Celery and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,360 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Celery, Stewed
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove the green tops from the celery and wash it thoroughly.
Trim off the outer leaves.
Cook and serve
Boil the celery in consommé for 20 minutes or until tender.
Serve the celery with ½ pint of Brown Clear Sauce.
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 + saucetop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,360 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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, softening into a tender texture as it simmers.
- Consommé
- Cooking liquid that gently flavours the celery and keeps it moist while it simmers.
- Brown clear sauce
- Adds a savoury, glossy sauce and extra moisture to the served celery.
The step that matters
Boil the celery until tender. Heat softens the fibres in celery stalks, so it needs to be checked during cooking. Stopping too early leaves it fibrous and firm, while boiling too long makes it limp and watery.
“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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