Why it works: Vinegar and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,627 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Celery Vinegar
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Mince the celery very fine and place it in a stone jar.
Infuse
Boil the vinegar and pour it over the minced celery.
Add the salt and let it stand for 24 hours.
Finish
Strain the mixture and bottle it.
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.
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Vinegar + celerytop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,627 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
- Vinegar
- Acts as the solvent that extracts flavor from the celery and provides its sharp acidity.
- Celery
- Supplies the aroma and flavor that the vinegar draws out over time.
The step that matters
Letting it stand for 24 hours. The flavor comes from slow extraction, so the mixture needs the full resting time for the celery aroma to infuse into the vinegar before straining.
“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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