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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 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,331 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Celery + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,331 recipes

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

  2. White pepper + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Celery + white peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together853 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Milk + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together14,680 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Celery + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,490 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.

Flavor stand-ins for the white pepper

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

  1. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  2. Macebetter flavor fit
  3. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  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. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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