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
Slice the white part of the celery root and stalks.
Pour 1 pint of boiling vinegar over the celery.
Let it cool slightly, then cover it.
Boil ½ teaspoon of coarse sea salt in the mixture.
If celery root is unavailable, use ½ ounce of bruised celery seed instead.
Steep and bottle
After three weeks, strain and bottle for keeping.
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 draws out celery flavor and provides sharp acidity.
- Celery
- Supplies the aromatic flavor that steeps into the vinegar.
- Celery seed
- Adds concentrated celery aroma when used in place of the fresh celery root.
The step that matters
Steeping the celery. Flavor compounds are extracted slowly from the celery into the vinegar over time, so straining too early leaves the vinegar weakly flavored.
“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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