Name: Celery Salad
Ingredients: 2 boiled eggs; 1 raw egg; 2 tablespoons melted butter or 1 tablespoon oil; 1 tablespoon sugar; 1 teaspoon mustard; 4 teaspoons coarse sea salt; 4 teaspoons black pepper; 4 teacups vinegar; Celery, cut into pieces half an inch long

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Celery Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

Rub the yolks of the boiled eggs smooth.
Add the oil, mustard, sugar, salt, and pepper to the yolks.
Mix in the vinegar last.

Prepare and serve the salad

Cut the celery into half-inch pieces and set aside in a cool place.
Just before serving, sprinkle a little salt and black pepper over the celery.
Pour the dressing 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.

Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 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

Boiled eggs: Their yolks are mashed smooth to form the body of the dressing.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the richness of the yolks.
Oil: Adds fat that gives the dressing a smooth, rich texture.
Celery: Forms the main body of the salad, carrying the dressing.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, sugar, mustard, pepper, vinegar):

Tarragonfits better
Capersfits better
Cinnamonfits better
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar, mustard, pepper, vinegar. 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.