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Sauce

Celery Sauce

A tomato and celery-based sauce seasoned with vinegar, salt, and sugar, boiled for 1½ hours and served with meats.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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

Prepare

  1. Chop the tomatoes, green pepper, onions, and celery finely, keeping the tomatoes separate.

Cook

  1. Combine all chopped ingredients in a pot with vinegar, salt, and sugar.

  2. Boil for 1½ hours.

Serve

  1. Serve with meats.

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. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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
Provide the main body and fresh, tangy flavor of the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the sauce.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Onions
Contribute savory aroma and depth as they soften during cooking.
Celery
Adds a fresh, herbal aroma and a vegetable base to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil for 1½ hours. A long, steady boil softens the finely chopped vegetables and lets water evaporate, thickening the sauce and concentrating its flavors. Stopping early leaves it thin and sharp.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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