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Celery, a LA Villeroi

Breaded celery braised in reduced Allemande sauce, fried in lard, and 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 Allemande sauce.

Coat and fry

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

  2. Heat hog's lard in a frying pan and fry the celery until bright yellow.

  3. Drain on a cloth, serve on a napkin, and 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
Becomes tender when braised, and forms the main body of the dish.
Reduced allemande sauce
Adds a creamy, rich layer that helps the coating adhere to the celery.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust when fried.
Beaten eggs
Bind the bread crumbs to the celery so the coating holds during frying.
Hog's lard
Conducts heat for frying and gives the crust a rich flavour and golden browning.

The step that matters

Drain the celery well after braising. Excess moisture left on the celery will make the egg and bread crumb coating slide off or turn soggy in the hot fat. Draining on a napkin absorbs this water before coating.

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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