Skip to main content
Main

Celery Relish

A pickled celery relish with vinegar, sugar, mustard, curry powder, and red peppers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

Heat the vinegar

  1. Boil the vinegar in a large pot.

  2. Reduce the boiling vinegar to a simmer.

Make the flour mixture

  1. Mix the flour in a separate bowl until smooth.

  2. Add the mustard, curry powder, and chopped red peppers to the flour mixture.

  3. Stir in the sugar.

Cook the relish

  1. Add the flour mixture to the simmering vinegar.

  2. Add the chopped celery and all other ingredients to the boiling vinegar.

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. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery
Makes up the bulk of the relish and gives it its crisp, fresh texture.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the relish and balances the sweetness.
Flour
Its starch swells in the hot liquid, thickening the relish.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that softens the sharpness of the vinegar.
Curry powder
Contributes the warm, spiced aroma and flavour that sets this relish apart.
Red peppers
Add mild sweetness and colour to the relish.

The step that matters

Mix the flour until smooth. Flour must be fully smooth before it goes into the hot vinegar, because dry lumps of starch cook into clumps instead of thickening the liquid evenly.

Swap the celery

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

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

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

You might also like

Cream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCelery StewCelery Stew25 recipesCelery CroquettesCelery Croquettes16 recipesCelery Cream SoupCelery Cream Soup15 recipes