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Salad

Celery Salad

A salad of celery tossed with a vinaigrette of olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Celery Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break celery into 1-inch pieces and place in a salad bowl.

  2. In a teacup, combine salt and pepper.

  3. Fill the cup halfway with olive oil and the rest with vinegar.

Dress and serve

  1. Beat the mixture and pour it over the celery.

  2. If oil remains, add a little more vinegar and beat again until fully distributed.

  3. Ensure the celery is crisp before serving.

  4. You can substitute melted butter for olive oil if desired.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Celery + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,667 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. 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

Celery
Provides the crisp, fresh bulk of the salad.
Olive oil
Carries fat and flavor and coats the celery pieces.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.

The step that matters

Beat the dressing until fully combined. Oil and vinegar separate on their own. Beating them into an emulsion spreads the acid and fat evenly so each piece of celery gets a consistent coating rather than a greasy or sour bite.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, olive, vinegar, butter. 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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