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Celery and Macaroni Stew

A creamy stew of celery and macaroni cooked in milk, water, and bechamel sauce, seasoned with salt, bay leaf, pepper, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,331 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Celery and Macaroni Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery

  1. Trim and wash the celery.

  2. Boil the celery in milk and water seasoned with salt and a bay leaf until tender.

  3. Drain the celery.

  4. Cut the celery into 2-inch lengths.

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Cook the macaroni in salted water until done.

  2. Drain the macaroni.

  3. Cut the macaroni into short pieces.

Make the stew and serve

  1. Heat the bechamel sauce.

  2. Add the celery and macaroni to the sauce.

  3. Season with white pepper and nutmeg.

  4. Let the mixture simmer gently for 15 minutes or longer.

  5. Serve on a hot dish.

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.

  1. Celery + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Celery + white peppertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together853 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Celery + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

White celery
Provides the main bulk and tender vegetable texture once boiled until soft.
Macaroni
Adds starchy body and substance, soaking up the sauce as it simmers.
Bechamel or white sauce
Forms the creamy base that binds the celery and macaroni together.
Milk
Gives the celery a mild, creamy flavour as it cooks tender.

The step that matters

Simmer gently. Simmering gently rather than boiling keeps the cream-based sauce smooth and prevents it from splitting or scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, milk, sauce, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, milk, sauce, nutmeg. 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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