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Celery, a LA Villeroi

Celery à la Villeroi is celery coated in reduced Almande sauce, bread crumbs, beaten eggs, fried in hog's lard, garnished with fried parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Celery, a LA Villeroi

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery

  1. Braise the celery in a stewpan until tender, then drain on a napkin to absorb moisture.

  2. Split each head of celery in half and smear with reduced Almande sauce.

  3. Place the celery on an earthenware dish to cool.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll the celery in bread crumbs, dip in beaten eggs, and coat with more bread crumbs.

  2. Fry the celery in heated hog's lard until bright yellow, then drain on a cloth.

Serve

  1. Serve on a napkin garnished with fried parsley.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Celery + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,110 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 braising before frying.
Eggs
Bind the bread crumb coating so it adheres to the celery during frying.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Reduced allemande sauce
Adds richness and flavour to the celery and helps the coating stick.

The step that matters

Draining the celery before coating. Moisture left on the braised celery would make the coating soggy and cause it to spatter or separate in the hot lard, so draining it well on a napkin matters.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, bread, egg, parsley):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, bread, egg, parsley. 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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