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To Stew Celery

A creamy celery stew made with veal stock, cream, egg yolks, lemon peel, nutmeg, salt, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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To Stew Celery

Why it works: Celery and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Stew Celery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and clean the celery, then cut it into 2-3 inch pieces.

  2. Boil the celery in veal stock until tender.

Make the sauce

  1. In a bowl, combine the cream, egg yolks, lemon peel, nutmeg, salt, and butter.

  2. Heat the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly until hot, but do not let it boil.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the mixture over the cooked celery and heat thoroughly before serving.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  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. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the cream mixture into a smooth, rich sauce when gently heated.
Cream
Adds richness and body, giving the sauce a smooth, silky texture.
Butter
Adds fat for a rounded flavour and smooth mouthfeel in the sauce.
Celery
Forms the main body of the stew, becoming tender when simmered in stock.

The step that matters

Heating the cream and egg yolk mixture. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but if the mixture boils, the proteins tighten and curdle, leaving a grainy sauce. Low heat with constant stirring keeps it smooth.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, cream, egg, lemon, nutmeg, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, cream, egg, lemon, nutmeg, butter. 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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