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Celery Pickles

A pickled mixture of chopped cabbage and celery in vinegar with ginger, turmeric, mustard seed, salt, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Celery Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a porcelain-lined kettle, combine the chopped cabbage and celery.

  2. Add the vinegar, crushed ginger root, turmeric, mustard seed, salt, and sugar.

  3. Cook slowly for several hours until the cabbage and celery are tender.

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. Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Turmeric + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Celery + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve it.
White cabbage
Forms the bulk of the pickle and softens into a tender, spoonable texture during cooking.
Celery
Adds bulk and a fresh celery flavor that mellows during slow cooking.
White mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavor that deepens as the pickle cooks.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its yellow colour and a mildly earthy, bitter note.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar, rounding out the sweet-sour flavour.

The step that matters

Cooking slowly until tender. Simmering gently over several hours lets the vinegar soften the cabbage and celery and blend the spices. Too high a heat can scorch the bottom of the kettle, and undercooked vegetables stay crisp and raw-tasting.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, vinegar, ginger, turmeric, mustard, sugar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, vinegar, ginger, turmeric, mustard, 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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