Name: Celery Sauce
Ingredients: 30 ripe tomatoes; 5 large red peppers; 10 large onions; 15 tablespoons granulated sugar; 4 tablespoons salt; 6 cups cider vinegar; 4 heads celery

Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Celery Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Chop the tomatoes, red peppers, onions, and celery.
Combine all ingredients in a large pot.
Bring to a boil and cook for 1½ hours, stirring occasionally until thickened.

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.

Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes: Break down during cooking to give the sauce body and moisture.
Red peppers: Add sweetness and color to the sauce as they soften.
Onions: Contribute savory aroma and natural sweetness as they cook down.
Celery: Adds fresh, savory aroma and a vegetal backbone to the sauce.
Granulated sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Cider vinegar: Provides acidity and tang that brightens the sauce and helps keep it stable.

The step that matters

Stirring during the long simmer. The sauce is thick with sugar and vegetable solids, which can scorch on the bottom of the pot over 1½ hours. Stirring occasionally keeps solids from sticking and burning, and the sauce thickens as water evaporates.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Mustardfits better
Cucumberfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, sugar, cider, vinegar, celery. 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.