Name: Boiled Celery
Ingredients: Celery; Coarse sea salt; Toasted bread; White sauce

Why it works: Celery and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,110 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Boiled Celery

Ingredients

Celery
Coarse sea salt
Toasted bread
White sauce

Directions

Clean and remove the outer stalks of the celery.
Cut the celery into short lengths and tie them in small bundles.
Place the bundles in a pan of boiling water with salt.
Boil until tender, then drain.
Arrange the celery on a piece of toasted bread and pour white sauce over it.

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 + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,110 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Bread + saucetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,934 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Celery + saucetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,360 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).