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Salad

Celery Salad

A salad of chopped celery and cabbage dressed with a vinaigrette of egg yolks, vinegar, mustard, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix egg yolks, vinegar, salad oil, mustard, salt, and cayenne pepper until well combined.

  2. In a saucepan, combine vinegar, butter, egg yolks, mustard, salt, cayenne pepper, and sugar.

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

  4. Once cooled, add sweet cream and mix well.

Assemble the salad

  1. Cut celery into pieces ¼ inch long.

  2. Pour the dressing over the celery.

  3. Pour the mixture over the salad; if 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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mustard + cabbagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + cabbagetop 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

Celery
Forms the crisp bulk of the salad, giving it body and crunch.
Egg yolks
Emulsify the oil and vinegar and thicken the dressing as it is heated.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the richness of the yolks.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the cooked dressing, softening its sharpness.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and smoothness to the cooled dressing.

The step that matters

Heat the dressing while stirring constantly. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but if they get too hot or are left unstirred they can curdle or scramble. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly so the dressing turns smooth and thick.

Swap the celery

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

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

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