Skip to main content
Drink

Round the Table

A vinegar flavored with herbs such as tarragon, celery seed, cress seed, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chevalley de Rivaz, Victor · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Celery and mustard 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 ↓

Round the Table

Ingredients

Directions

Make the basic herb vinegar

  1. Crush four or five cloves of garlic, bruised.

  2. Crush a cupful of celery seed in a mortar.

  3. Crush an equal quantity of cress seed similarly.

  4. Combine these with one quart of vinegar.

  5. Cork the bottle and expose to sun or a very warm place for two to three weeks.

  6. Strain and filter the vinegar.

Make the flavoured variations

  1. For Tarragon vinegar: fill a jar with tarragon leaves, add a small quantity of cloves and the thin rind of two or three lemons, fill with vinegar, cork, expose to sun for at least a fortnight, then strain, squeeze leaves, filter through paper.

  2. For Fines Herbes vinegar: take equal parts tarragon, garden cress, chervil, burnet, one green chili, and a couple of cloves of garlic; fill bottle; treat as above.

  3. Another form: equal parts tarragon, burnet, chives, thin rind of one or two lemons, a few cloves; proceed as above; optionally add a handful of fresh elder flowers.

Make the mustard

  1. For mustard: take about a quart of brown mustard seed, mix with parsley, chervil, tarragon, burnet (handful each finely minced), celery seed, cloves, mace, nutmeg, garlic, and salt in proportions to taste; put whole in a basin with enough vinegar to cover; after twenty-four hours, pound in a mortar; when thoroughly pounded, pass through a fine hair sieve; add enough vinegar to make the mustard of proper consistency; fill up, cork, and seal pots or bottles.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

121Calories
8 gProtein
6 gFat
10 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 10 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Celery Seed1 stalk (40g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Flowernot in our table0
Seednot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Chevalley de Rivaz, Victor. 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. See the original page.

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 + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Garlic + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour from the herbs, seeds and garlic over time.
Celery seed
Contributes a warm, aromatic flavour that infuses into the vinegar.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that mellows and softens as it steeps in the vinegar.
Brown mustard seed
Provides the pungent body and sharp heat of the mustard once crushed and moistened with vinegar.
Lemon rind
Adds bright citrus aroma and a touch of acidity to the infused vinegar.

The step that matters

Pounding the mustard seed after soaking. Mustard seed releases its pungency and thickens only when its cells are broken and it is well moistened with vinegar, so the seed must be thoroughly pounded before sieving and adjusting the consistency.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (garlic, vinegar, celery, mustard, lemon, egg):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against garlic, vinegar, celery, mustard, lemon, egg. 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.

You might also like

Raspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipesLemon WheyLemon Whey33 recipesLemon WineLemon Wine31 recipesSugar VinegarSugar Vinegar20 recipes