Why it works: Celery and vinegar 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
Pound the celery seed in a mortar.
Put the celery seed into a quart bottle.
Pour the vinegar over the celery seed.
Infuse and strain
Shake the bottle well every day for two weeks.
After two weeks, strain the mixture and keep it for use.
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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Celery + vinegartop 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
- Celery seed
- Provides the primary celery aroma and flavor as it steeps into the vinegar.
- Vinegar
- Acts as the solvent that extracts flavor from the celery seed and carries it into the liquid.
The step that matters
Shake the bottle well every day for two weeks. Regular shaking keeps the crushed seed in contact with the vinegar so flavor compounds dissolve evenly over the whole infusion period.
“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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