Name: Celery Vinegar
Ingredients: 1½ pints boiling vinegar; 1 pint fresh celery roots and stems, sliced fine; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; a few grains cayenne pepper; ½ ounce peppercorns

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Celery Vinegar

Ingredients

1½ pints boiling vinegar
1 pint fresh celery roots and stems, sliced fine
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
a few grains cayenne pepper
½ ounce peppercorns

Directions

Make the vinegar

In a pot, combine boiling vinegar, sliced celery, salt, cayenne, and peppercorns.
Boil for 2-3 minutes.
Pour the mixture into a stone jar and let it cool.

Store

Seal the jar to keep it airtight.
Store for 2-3 months, or strain and bottle after 3-4 weeks.

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.

Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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

Celery roots and stems: Provide the main celery flavor that infuses into the vinegar as it steeps.
Vinegar: Acts as the liquid base and carries the flavors of the celery and spices.
Peppercorns: Add a warm, aromatic spice note to the vinegar.