Name: Celery Plain, for Relishes
Ingredients: Celery hearts; Ice; Anchovy paste; Sweet oil; Anchovy butter; Cheese

Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Celery Plain, for Relishes

Ingredients

Directions

Trim the celery, using only the tender hearts.
Place the celery hearts in a basin on ice until ready to serve.
Serve the celery in celery glasses.
Prepare a sauce by diluting anchovy paste with warmed sweet oil, ensuring it does not boil, or use plain anchovy butter.
Optionally, serve plain celery with cheese after dinner.

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.

Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,697 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Celery + anchovytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together246 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Anchovy + cheesetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together164 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Celery + cheesetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together647 recipes

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