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Celery Pickle

A pickled mixture of cabbage and celery in vinegar, salt, ginger, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,840 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Celery Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine all ingredients in a porcelain-lined kettle.

  2. Cook slowly for several hours until the cabbage and celery are tender.

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.

  1. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Ginger + celerytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together988 recipes

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

  3. Ginger + cabbagetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together545 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

White cabbage
Forms the bulk of the pickle and softens into a tender texture as it cooks.
Celery
Adds bulk and a crisp-turned-tender vegetable texture after long cooking.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that gives the pickle its sharp, preserving tang.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
White ginger root
Contributes a warm, aromatic spice note to the pickle.

The step that matters

Cook slowly for several hours until the cabbage and celery are tender.. Low, slow heat lets the vegetables soften evenly through without scorching on the bottom of the kettle. Stopping too early leaves them firm and sharp-tasting, while cooking too hard can burn the sugar and vinegar mixture.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ginger, cabbage, vinegar, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, cabbage, vinegar, sugar. 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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