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Celeri Au Jus

A dish of boiled celery simmered in a butter‑flour jus with stock and meat gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Celeri Au Jus

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery

  1. Cut off the hard stalks of the celery and cut them into 6‑inch pieces.

  2. Scrape the roots and wash the celery carefully.

  3. Boil the celery in salted water for 10 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter over gentle heat.

  2. Stir in the flour until it becomes slightly brown.

  3. Gradually add the hot stock while stirring, and don't worry if it fizzes.

  4. Season with salt and pepper, then add the celery.

Finish and serve

  1. Cover and simmer gently for about 30 minutes until tender.

  2. Just before serving, stir in the meat gravy.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Celery + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Celery + meattop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,880 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and flour 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 dish and becomes tender during slow simmering.
Butter
Carries the flour and adds richness and a rounded flavour to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth sauce once it is cooked briefly in the butter.
Hot stock
Forms the liquid base of the jus, adding savoury flavour.
Meat gravy
Adds concentrated meaty flavour and colour to the finished jus.

The step that matters

Gradually adding the hot stock to the roux. Adding the hot stock slowly while stirring lets the flour disperse evenly, which prevents lumps and gives a smooth, glossy sauce.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper, meat. 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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