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Salad

Celery Salad

A salad of finely chopped cabbage and celery dressed with a vinaigrette of vinegar, butter, egg yolks, mustard, salt, cayenne pepper, sugar, and sweet cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Celery Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cabbage and celery very fine.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix vinegar, butter, egg yolks, mustard, salt, cayenne pepper, and sugar.

  2. Heat the mixture on the stove, stirring constantly until it thickens.

  3. Let it cool, then add the sweet cream.

Assemble

  1. Pour the dressing over the salad.

  2. If the salad is not moist enough, add cold 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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing when heated and help bind it into a smooth, creamy sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the dressing a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens the dressing and moistens the chopped vegetables.
Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the salad, providing crisp texture and body.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, savory flavor to the salad.

The step that matters

Heating the dressing while stirring constantly. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but if they get too hot or are left unstirred they can scramble, leaving lumps instead of a smooth dressing. Constant stirring spreads heat evenly so the sauce thickens gently.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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