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Sauce

Celery Sauce

A sweet and spicy sauce made from chopped green tomatoes, celery, onion, sugar, mustard, cinnamon, salt, pepper, vinegar, and curry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop the green tomatoes, celery, and onion very fine.

  2. In a large pot, combine the chopped vegetables with sugar, mustard, cinnamon, coarse sea salt, red pepper, vinegar, and curry.

  3. Boil the mixture until tender.

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

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

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

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

  4. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the chutney and their tartness balances the sugar.
Celery
Adds body and a savory, vegetal flavor as it softens during boiling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture while it thickens.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the mixture.
Mustard
Contributes pungent flavor that deepens as the sauce cooks.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture until tender. Cooking long enough softens the finely chopped vegetables and lets the vinegar and sugar blend into a thick sauce. Stopping too early leaves the vegetables firm and the sauce thin and sharp.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, celery, sugar, mustard, cinnamon, pepper, vinegar. 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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