Name: Celery Salad
Ingredients: 2 cups celery, chopped into ½ inch pieces; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon sugar; ½ cup vinegar; 1 tablespoon butter

Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Celery Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery

Boil the chopped celery in salted water until almost tender.

Make the dressing

In a bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the sugar and vinegar.
Melt the butter and pour it over the celery.

Serve

Serve the salad hot or cold.

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.

Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Celery + vinegartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,627 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery: Forms the main body of the salad and provides its crisp, fresh texture when cooked until almost tender.
Eggs: Beaten eggs thicken the vinegar-sugar mixture into a binding, creamy dressing as they set with gentle heat.
Vinegar: Adds the sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and cuts through the richness of the butter and eggs.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and giving the dressing a smooth, silky mouthfeel.