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Celery Vinegar

A pickled celery vinegar made by boiling celery with vinegar, salt, and sugar, then straining after two weeks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Celery Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Make the infusion

  1. Place the chopped celery in a jar.

  2. In a saucepan, heat the vinegar, sugar, and salt until boiling.

  3. Pour the boiling mixture over the celery in the jar.

  4. Let it cool, then cover tightly and set aside.

Strain and bottle

  1. After two weeks, strain and bottle the vinegar.

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

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

  2. Celery + vinegartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,627 recipes

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

  3. Celery + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,794 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery
Releases its flavour into the vinegar over time, giving the aroma and taste.
Vinegar
Acts as the solvent that extracts celery flavour and provides the sharp, acidic base.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a mild sweetness.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling mixture over the celery. Heating the vinegar brings it to a boil so it can extract flavour from the celery more effectively. Keep the lid off while pouring so the hot liquid covers the celery evenly.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Peppermintfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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