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Celery Pickles

Pickled cucumbers flavored with celery seed, mustard seed, and alum in vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery 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 Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Slice cucumbers thinly using a vegetable slicer.

  2. Pour boiling hot weak brine over the cucumbers.

  3. Let the cucumbers stand for 24 hours.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. In a pot, combine vinegar, mustard seed, celery seed, and alum; boil the mixture.

  2. Pour the boiling mixture over the pickles.

Store

  1. Store in old pickle bottles and seal.

  2. Alternatively, store in a jar covered with a cloth, rinsing the cloth occasionally.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cucumber + celerytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,745 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the main body of the pickles, becoming crisp-tender once brined and pickled.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickles their sharp flavor.
White mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavor to the pickling liquid.
Celery seed
Contributes a distinctive celery aroma and savory flavor to the pickles.
Alum
Helps keep the cucumbers firm and crisp during pickling.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling mixture over the pickles. The liquid must be fully boiling so it heats the cucumbers and helps the vinegar penetrate evenly. Cooling liquid can leave the pickles soft and under-flavored.

Swap the celery

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, mustard. 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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