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Celery, to Stew

A stew of celery simmered with broth, cream, flour, butter, pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Celery, to Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery

  1. Wash the celery and remove the outer leaves.

  2. Halve or leave the celery whole based on size, then cut into 4-inch lengths.

Make the stew

  1. Place the celery in a stew pan with the broth or gravy and stew until tender.

  2. Add the cream, flour, and butter, then season with pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

  3. Simmer all ingredients together until well combined.

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

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

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  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. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 stew and becomes tender as it simmers.
Broth or weak white gravy
Provides the cooking liquid that softens the celery and carries flavour.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky body to the stew.
Flour
Thickens the liquid so the stew becomes creamy rather than watery.
Butter
Adds fat for a rounded, rich flavour and smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Add the flour with the cream and butter. Flour thickens by swelling in hot liquid, so it should be well combined and simmered; if it is added lumpy or left unstirred, the sauce can turn grainy or uneven.

Swap the celery

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, flour, butter, pepper, 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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