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Celery Stewed, Spanish Style

A Spanish-style stew of celery simmered with butter, tomato sauce, and Espagnole sauce, garnished with parsley and toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Celery Stewed, Spanish Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and wash the celery, then cut the white part into 2‑inch pieces.

  2. Parboil the celery for 3 minutes.

  3. Immerse the parboiled celery in cold water and dry it on a napkin.

Make the stew

  1. In a flat saucepan, melt the butter.

  2. Add the celery to the butter and season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and sugar.

  3. Cover and simmer until the moisture is reduced.

  4. Add enough white broth to cover the celery.

  5. Cook on high heat until the liquid is reduced to a glaze and the celery is cooked.

  6. Stir in the tomato sauce and Espagnole sauce.

  7. Cook slowly for 10 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Add a small piece of butter and chopped parsley, tossing well over the heat.

  2. Serve with small toast of marrow around the dish as a garnish.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

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

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

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 dish and softens into tender pieces as it simmers.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour as the celery is first cooked and finished.
White broth
Supplies the liquid that cooks the celery, then reduces to a glaze that coats it.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and body to the reduced cooking liquid.
Espagnole sauce
Thickens the cooking liquid and deepens its savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Reducing the liquid to a glaze. If the broth is reduced too little, the celery stays watery; if reduced too far, it scorches and sticks. Cooking on high heat until the liquid thickens concentrates the flavour and lets it coat the celery.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, butter, pepper, nutmeg, sugar, sauce, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, butter, pepper, nutmeg, sugar, sauce, parsley. 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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