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To Stew Celery

A simple stew of celery simmered with broth, cream, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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To Stew Celery

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Stew Celery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the celery and remove the outer leaves.

  2. Halve or leave the celery whole, then cut into 4‑inch lengths.

Cook

  1. Place the celery in a stewpan with the broth or gravy.

  2. Stew until tender.

  3. Add the cream, flour, butter, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and sugar.

  4. Simmer all together until well combined.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Celery + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,331 recipes

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

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 stew and becomes tender through slow stewing.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the liquid so the stew becomes a cohesive sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and rounded flavour to the sauce.
Broth or weak white gravy
Provides the cooking liquid that softens the celery and forms the base of the sauce.

The step that matters

Add the flour with the cream and butter. Flour needs to be fully combined and simmered so it thickens smoothly; if added to hot liquid without stirring it can form lumps and leave a raw, floury taste.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, flour, butter, pepper, nutmeg, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, flour, butter, pepper, nutmeg, sugar. 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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