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Stewed Beef and Celery Sauce

A stew of beef and celery in a thickened stock, served with fried potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Beef and Celery Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into thick slices.

  2. Chop the celery roots and onions.

Stew and serve

  1. Simmer the onions and beef in the stock for about 1 hour.

  2. Thicken the mixture with a little flour.

  3. Add the celery 25 minutes before serving.

  4. Serve with fried potatoes.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Beef + celerytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Celery + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, slow simmering.
Stock
Supplies the cooking liquid that gives the stew its body and savory flavor.
Celery roots
Add a mild, earthy flavor and texture to the sauce as they cook.
Onions
Release sweetness and aroma as they soften in the simmering liquid.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, body-rich sauce.

The step that matters

Thicken the mixture with a little flour. Flour must be stirred in evenly and cooked through; added in clumps or left raw, it leaves lumps and a pasty taste, while a light, even addition thickens the sauce smoothly.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, flour, fried potato):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Jalapenofits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, flour, fried potato. 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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