Name: Celery Salad
Ingredients: 1 egg yolk; 2 tablespoons cream; 1 tablespoon white sugar; 3 tablespoons vinegar; 1 teaspoon olive oil; 1 teaspoon prepared mustard; ¼ teaspoon salt; celery, cut into 1-inch lengths

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 Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

Beat the egg yolk in a bowl.
Add cream, sugar, vinegar, olive oil, mustard, and salt; mix well.

Assemble

Pour the dressing over the cut celery and toss to combine.

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.

Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,950 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Olive + celerytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,667 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolk: Emulsifies the dressing and adds richness and body to its texture.
Cream: Adds fat and smoothness, softening the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar: Provides acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
White sugar: Balances the acidity with a touch of sweetness.
Celery: Forms the main body of the salad and carries the dressing with its crisp texture.

Swap the celery

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

Capersfits better
Tarragonfits better
Garlicfits about as well
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, sugar, vinegar, olive, 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.