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Celery, to Fry

A dish of celery heads battered and fried, served with melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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, to Fry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut off the heads and green tops of the celery.

  2. Remove the outer stalks and clean the roots.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix white wine, beaten egg yolks, salt, nutmeg, and flour to make a batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip each head of celery into the batter.

  2. Fry the battered celery in butter until golden brown.

  3. Place the fried celery on a dish and pour melted butter over them.

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. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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, becoming tender when fried.
Egg yolks
Bind the batter and help it cling to the celery while frying.
Flour
Thickens the batter so it coats the celery and crisps as it fries.
White wine
Thins the batter and adds a light acidity to the coating.
Butter
Fries the coating to golden brown and adds rich flavour.

The step that matters

Frying the battered celery in butter. Butter browns at a lower temperature than many oils and can burn before the coating is golden. Frying over moderate heat lets the batter set and brown evenly while the celery softens inside.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, egg, nutmeg, flour, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, egg, nutmeg, flour, butter. 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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