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Celery Sauce

A tomato-based sauce with celery, onions, sugar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Celery Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and peel the tomatoes, then cut them into small pieces.

  2. Chop the onions and celery together.

Cook and store

  1. Combine the tomatoes, chopped onions, celery, and all other ingredients in a pot.

  2. Simmer slowly until the mixture thickens.

  3. Bottle the sauce for storage.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Celery + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,422 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main body and bulk of the sauce as they break down during simmering.
Onions
Add savory depth and aroma that builds as they soften in the simmering sauce.
Celery
Contributes vegetal flavor and fibrous body to the sauce as it cooks down.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the acidity of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmering until thickened. Cooking slowly lets water evaporate gradually, so the sauce thickens without scorching on the bottom of the pot. Too much heat can burn the sugar and tomato solids before the sauce reaches the desired consistency.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, celery, sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, clove, allspice):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, celery, sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, clove, allspice. 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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