Name: Garniture De Celeri
Ingredients: 1 bunch celery; 1 slice bacon; 1 small slice ham; 1 bay leaf; 2-3 slices lemon; 1 onion, studded with a clove; stock (enough to cover celery)

Why it works: Celery and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Garniture De Celeri

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Scald the celery in boiling water for 5 minutes, then drain.
Cut the celery into pieces and place them in a stewpan.

Braise

Add the bacon, ham, bay leaf, lemon slices, and the onion.
Cover with more bacon and moisten with stock until the celery is covered.
Place the pan on a hot hearth and cover with hot ashes.
Once cooked, transfer to a deep dish, strain the sauce through a fine sieve, and pour over the celery.

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.

Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,467 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,668 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,150 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16,901 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Celery: Forms the main vegetable body that becomes tender during slow braising.
Stock: Provides the liquid that gently cooks the celery and forms the sauce.
Bacon: Adds savory fat and smoky flavor to the braising liquid and celery.