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Celery Mayonnaise

A chilled celery mayonnaise made with egg yolks, vinegar, mustard, flour, and butter, finished with chopped celery.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery 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 Mayonnaise

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the egg yolks until very light.

  2. Add the vinegar and water to the yolks.

  3. Blend the mustard, flour, salt, and sugar, then add to the mixture.

  4. Place the mixture in a rounded bottom enamel bowl and set it in boiling water.

  5. While the water boils, whip the egg mixture with a wire egg beater until thick and smooth.

  6. Remove from heat and add the butter or oil, then chill.

Finish

  1. Once cold, mix in the chopped celery.

  2. For a perfect finish, add a little additional whipped cream if desired.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing and emulsify it into a smooth, rich base.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
Flour
Stabilizes the cooked mixture so it thickens and holds together.
Sugar
Balances the acidity and adds sweetness.
Butter or oil
Adds fat that gives the dressing a smoother, richer texture.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and fresh, aromatic flavor to the dressing.

The step that matters

Thickening over boiling water. Egg yolks thicken gently as they heat, but if they get too hot they can scramble into lumps. Keep the bowl over steadily boiling water and whip constantly until the mixture is thick and smooth.

Swap the celery

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, mustard, flour, sugar, butter, cream. 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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