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Celery Pickle

A pickled celery dish made with green tomatoes, cabbage, celery, seeds, sugar, and cider vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard 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 Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the green tomatoes finely and mix with the salt. Let stand overnight.

  2. Squeeze out the excess liquid and place in a kettle.

Cook and seal

  1. Add the chopped cabbage, chopped celery, celery seed, mustard seed, sugar, and enough cider vinegar to cover.

  2. Bring to a boil, stirring thoroughly.

  3. Seal in airtight containers while hot.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

  5. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the pickle and absorb the brine's flavour during overnight salting.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out excess liquid from the tomatoes so the pickle keeps a firmer texture.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its tang.
Cabbage
Adds body and crunch to the pickle.
Celery
Adds its fresh, savoury flavour and some crunch to the pickle.

The step that matters

Squeeze out the excess liquid. Salted tomatoes release a lot of water. If it is not drained well, the pickle will be watery and dilute the vinegar, so it may not keep or set properly.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cabbage, celery, mustard, cider, vinegar. 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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