Why it works: Celery and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Celery Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Trim and wash the celery, then cut it into short, thick juliennes.
Season the celery with coarse sea salt, black pepper, vinegar, and oil.
Add the chopped chives and mix everything well.
Dress the salad in a bowl and garnish with sliced tomatoes or beets cut into fancy shapes.
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 + tomatotop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,377 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Celery + chivetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together359 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Chive + tomatotop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together538 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the chive
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, pepper, vinegar, tomato):
- Capsicumfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Mustardfits better
- Chivethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against celery, pepper, vinegar, tomato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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