Name: Celery Sauce, for Boiled Turkey, Poultry, &C.
Ingredients: 4 heads of celery; 1 quart of white stock; 4 blades of mace; 1 small bunch of savory herbs; thickening of butter and flour or arrowroot; 1 pint of cream; lemon juice; salt to taste; white pepper to taste

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 ↓

Celery Sauce, for Boiled Turkey, Poultry, &C.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery

Boil the celery in salted water until tender, then cut it into 2-inch pieces.

Make the sauce

In a stewpan, combine the stock, mace, and herbs, and simmer for 30 minutes to extract their flavor.
Strain the liquid, add the celery, and thicken with butter kneaded with flour or arrowroot.
Just before serving, stir in the cream, bring to a boil, and add a squeeze of lemon juice.
Season with salt and white pepper if necessary.

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.

Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,467 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,695 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Lemon + white peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,658 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Celery: Provides the main body and flavor of the sauce.
White stock: Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor of the mace and herbs.
Butter and flour or arrowroot: Thickens the liquid into a smooth, cohesive sauce.
Cream: Adds richness and a silky, smooth texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Butter kneaded with flour or arrowroot must be fully incorporated into the hot liquid so it thickens evenly without lumps. Flour needs to be cooked to remove its raw taste and reach full thickening power, while arrowroot thickens best when not overheated for long.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, mace, butter, cream, lemon):

Nutmegfits better
Parsleyfits better
Tarragonfits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, mace, butter, cream, lemon. 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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Celery Sauce, for Boiled Turkey, Poultry, &C.