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Celery Relish

A spicy-sweet relish made with celery, red peppers, vinegar, mustard, curry powder, flour, sugar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Celery Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the mustard, curry powder, and flour separately.

  2. Bring the vinegar to a boil.

  3. Reduce the boiling vinegar to a simmer.

Make the relish

  1. Add the flour mixture.

  2. Add the curry.

  3. Add the mustard.

  4. Add the sugar.

  5. Add the salt.

  6. Blend all ingredients well.

Finish

  1. Add the chopped celery.

  2. Boil for 10 minutes.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery
Forms the bulk of the relish and gives it a crisp, fresh texture.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the relish and keeps its flavor bright.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard.
Flour
Thickens the liquid as it heats, giving the relish a smooth, spoonable body.
Curry powder
Supplies warm, aromatic spice flavor that defines the dish.
Mustard
Adds pungent sharpness and depth to the vinegar base.

The step that matters

Add the flour mixture to the simmering vinegar. Flour dissolved separately in cold liquid can be stirred into hot vinegar without clumping. Added dry or too early, it forms lumps that stay in the relish. Once heated, the starch swells and thickens the mixture.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, vinegar, mustard, flour, sugar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, mustard, flour, sugar. 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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