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Celery, a LA Villeroi

Fried celery coated in breadcrumbs and beaten eggs, served with fried parsley garnish.

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.

  2. Drain on a napkin to absorb moisture.

  3. Split each head of celery in half.

  4. Mask with reduced Allemande sauce.

Bread and fry

  1. Roll the celery in bread crumbs.

  2. Dip in beaten eggs.

  3. Coat with more bread crumbs.

  4. Heat hog's lard in a frying pan.

  5. Fry the celery until bright yellow.

  6. Drain on a cloth.

Serve

  1. Serve on a napkin.

  2. Garnish 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, becoming tender through braising and moist within its crisp coating.
Reduced allemande sauce
Coats the celery with a rich, savoury layer that adds moisture and flavour.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust when fried, protecting the celery from direct heat.
Beaten eggs
Bind the bread crumbs to the celery so the coating holds during frying.
Clean hog's lard
Conducts heat for frying and browns the crumb coating to a golden colour.

The step that matters

Drain the celery on a napkin before masking. Excess moisture left on braised celery would soften the breadcrumb coating and make it greasy or soggy during frying, so the celery must be well drained first.

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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