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Celery in a Gratin

A gratin of boiled celery tossed in béchamel sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,147 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Celery in a Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery

  1. Trim the stringy parts from the celery and cut it into round shapes, about the size of a coin.

  2. Boil the celery until tender.

Stew and finish

  1. Stew the celery in good consommé with butter, sugar, and salt until nearly dry.

  2. Drain the celery on a sieve.

  3. Toss the celery in béchamel sauce and serve like a gratin.

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. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Celery + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,360 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Celery + buttertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

White celery
Provides the main body and tender texture of the gratin.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the celery a silky mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds a touch of sweetness that balances the savoury celery.
Béchamel sauce
Coats the celery with a creamy binding sauce that carries the gratin.

The step that matters

Stew until nearly dry. Stewing the celery in consommé until nearly dry concentrates its flavour and removes excess liquid. If it stays wet, the béchamel will thin and the gratin will become watery rather than creamy.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, sauce):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, sauce. 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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