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Celery and Macaroni Stew

A stew of celery and macaroni simmered in milk, water, and béchamel sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,331 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Celery and Macaroni Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery and macaroni

  1. Trim and wash the celery, then boil it in milk and water with salt and the bay leaf until tender.

  2. Drain the celery and cut it into 2-inch lengths.

  3. Cook the macaroni in salted water until done, then drain and cut into short pieces.

Combine and serve

  1. Heat the béchamel sauce, add the celery and macaroni, and season with white pepper and nutmeg.

  2. Let the mixture simmer gently for 15 minutes, being careful not to break the celery or macaroni.

  3. Serve hot.

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

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

  2. White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Celery + white peppertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together853 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Celery + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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 vegetable body and mild flavour of the stew.
Macaroni
Adds starchy bulk and a soft, chewy texture to the stew.
Béchamel or white sauce
Forms the creamy, thickened base that binds the celery and macaroni together.
Milk
Gently cooks the celery while adding richness and a creamy flavour.

The step that matters

Simmering the combined mixture. Simmering gently keeps the celery and macaroni intact. A hard boil or vigorous stirring can break the pieces apart and make the stew mushy.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, milk, sauce, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, milk, sauce, nutmeg. 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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