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 ↓
Fish in Shells
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Clean and prepare the fish, then place it in a baking dish.
Make the cream sauce
In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.
Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.
Gradually add the cream, stirring until thickened.
Add celery extract, salt, and pepper to taste.
Bake and serve
Pour the cream sauce over the fish.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the fish is cooked through.
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.
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Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + celerytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,905 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- White fish
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through gently in the sauce.
- Sweet thick cream
- Creates a rich, smooth sauce that adds moisture and body to the fish.
- Butter
- Provides fat for cooking the flour and adds richness to the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the cream sauce when cooked briefly in melted butter.
The step that matters
Gradually add the cream, stirring until thickened. Adding cream slowly while stirring keeps the flour-butter mixture smooth and prevents lumps. Cooking the sauce until it thickens lets the starch swell so it coats the fish instead of running off.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, cream, butter, flour, pepper):
- Nutmegfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Capersfits better
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, cream, butter, flour, 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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