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Celery. Stew

A stew of celery simmered in water, thickened with wholemeal flour and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Celery. Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook the celery

  1. Wash the celery and cut it into about 8 pieces.

  2. Place the celery in a stewpan and barely cover with water.

  3. Simmer until tender.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Transfer the celery to a hot dish.

  2. Thicken the cooking liquid with a little wholemeal flour.

  3. Add a small piece of butter to the thickened liquid.

  4. Pour the sauce over the celery and serve.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Celery + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Celery
Provides the main bulk and mild flavour, softening into tender pieces as it simmers.
Wholemeal flour
Starch that thickens the cooking liquid into a light sauce when heated.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the sauce's flavour and gives it a smooth, glossy finish.

The step that matters

Thickening the cooking liquid with flour. Flour must be stirred in evenly so it does not form lumps. Its starch swells and thickens the liquid only when heated, so the sauce needs to be kept warm long enough to thicken properly.

Swap the celery

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, 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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