Name: Celery, Stewed
Ingredients: 1 head of celery; diabetic white sauce; grated cheese; butter

Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Celery, Stewed

Ingredients

1 head of celery
diabetic white sauce
grated cheese
butter

Directions

Prepare and boil

Wash the celery well, cut it into even lengths, and tie the celery together.
Boil the celery in stock if possible.

Serve

Serve the celery in a hot vegetable dish and pour diabetic white sauce over it.
Alternatively, sprinkle grated cheese over the celery, add a few scraps of butter on top, and bake for 5 minutes.

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.

Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + cheesetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,987 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Celery + cheesetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together647 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
Celery + saucetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,360 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 its texture softens with boiling.
Diabetic white sauce: Adds moisture and a creamy coating over the celery.
Grated cheese: Melts and browns on top when baked, adding savoury flavour.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, and helps the top brown in the oven.