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
Prepare the dressing as you would for a tomato salad.
Cut the celery into pieces that are ½ inch long.
Season the celery with salt.
Serve immediately to maintain the crispness of the vegetables.
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).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Celery
- Forms the crisp, fresh body of the salad, which is why it should be served right away.
The step that matters
Serve immediately. Celery is mostly water held in rigid cell walls. Once salted and dressed, salt draws moisture out through osmosis and softens the cell structure, so the salad loses its crispness if it waits.
“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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