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Celery, Braised

A braised celery dish cooked with stock, bacon, brown or espagnole sauce, and meat glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Celery, Braised

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Trim and wash the celery, then cut each head into 2 or 3 portions and tie each with 4-inch lengths of thin twine.

Braise

  1. Arrange the celery in a well-buttered sauté pan, season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and moisten with the stock.

  2. Cut the bacon into strips, fry them slightly, and place them on top of the celery.

  3. Cover the pan and place it in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) to cook for about 30 minutes.

Finish the sauce

  1. Once done, remove the celery, drain it, and reduce the remaining liquid, adding a little Brown or Espagnole sauce and the meat glaze.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Celery + meattop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,880 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Nutmeg + meattop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,656 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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 becomes tender through slow, moist cooking.
Streaky bacon
Adds savory fat and flavor that seasons the celery as it cooks.
Rich stock
Provides the moisture for braising and flavors the liquid that becomes the sauce.
Brown or espagnole sauce
Adds body and depth to the reduced cooking liquid.
Meat glaze
Concentrates savory flavor and richness in the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Reducing the remaining liquid. Reducing concentrates the stock and pan juices, so the sauce gains body and flavor. Reducing too far can make it overly salty or sticky, while too little leaves it thin and watery.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, pepper, sauce, meat. 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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