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To Stew Celery

A creamy celery stew made with milk, water, flour, butter, eggs, and cream, seasoned with pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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To Stew Celery

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 ↓

To Stew Celery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut celery into pieces and remove the green ends.

Make the stew

  1. Stew celery in equal parts milk and water until tender.

  2. Thicken the mixture with a little flour.

  3. Add a little butter and bring to a boil.

  4. Beat two eggs and mix with 1 cup of cream, then add to the pot.

  5. Season with pepper and salt.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Forms the main body of the stew and gives its vegetable flavor.
Milk
Provides liquid and richness as the celery stews.
Flour
Thickens the liquid so the stew becomes creamy rather than watery.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, rounder flavor and mouthfeel.
Eggs
Set with gentle heat to add body and thickness to the stew.
Cream
Adds richness and a softer, silkier texture.

The step that matters

Adding the egg and cream mixture. Egg proteins set with gentle heat and can curdle or turn grainy if the liquid is at a hard boil. Adding the mixture to a pot that is no longer boiling vigorously helps keep the stew smooth.

Swap the celery

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

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

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