I’m a huge fan of cooking homemade meals, and that goes without saying that I always have a repertoire of all the essential ingredients, spices, and herbs in my kitchen. One such item I just can’t live without is celery salt. It just gives that extra flavor on everything I cook, making them a lot better than usual, not to mention it offers a slew of health benefits as well.
While you can buy one straight from the grocery, most store-bought brands tend to contain junky ingredients which defeat the purpose of me going all-organic. For that, I decided to create my own, and that’s exactly what we’re going to discuss here. Specifically, we’ll be talking about how to make celery salt straight from your kitchen (you’ll be surprised to find out how easy it is!).
Table of Contents
What You Need:
- 1 part celery seed
- 2 parts table salt (make sure you use unrefined sea salt with no additives, like the Redmond Real Salt)
- Mortar and pestle, spice grinder, or food processor
- Small and airtight Mason jar for containing the salt
- A food dehydrator or oven (only when you opt to use leaves instead of seeds)
Alternatively, you can use the leaves of a celery head instead of the celery seed. However, this process involves drying the leaves (we’ll be talking about it later), making it a bit more time-consuming than using celery seed.
If you want to save more time, I would recommend using celery seed instead since the process is much faster.
Step-by-Step Instructions
When Using Celery Seeds
If you opt for celery seeds, then the procedures are as follows:
- Using the processor of your choice (either a spice grinder, mortar, and pestle, or food processor), grind the seeds as finely as possible. You can actually make it coarse if you prefer, though most would prefer their celery salt finely ground.
- Once the seeds are ground into your desired consistency, combine them with the salt, then make sure to mix them well.
- After mixing, simply store your finished celery salt in a Mason jar then use it as needed.
When Using Celery Leaves
As mentioned earlier, using celery leaves to make celery salt can take a little more time. Specifically, here are the steps involved:
- Remove the leaves from your celery head.
- After that, rinse the leaves to remove any dirt or dust that might be present. Shake them off as much as possible to remove as much water as possible.
- Next is to dry the leaves as much as possible. There are plenty of ways to do so. You can either lay them out on a place then shuffle around a few times a day ‘til they feel dry and crumbly when touched, place them into a brown paper bag then shake the bag several times ‘til the leaves are dry, or pat them dry using a clean paper or dish towel.
- You can also use the oven or food dehydrator if you’re in a hurry. However, when you opt for this drying method, make sure you don’t go too far since the leaves will dry quickly. You also want to make sure its set to the lowest temperature and the door is slightly open. If left unattended, you’ll end up cooking or burning them instead.
- When drying the leaves using even an oven or food dehydrator, allow them to cool for a few minutes first. Once dried, you can then start grinding them. Before that, you want to check the leaves and remove those that aren’t crispy.
- Next, grind the leaves and thoroughly mix one part of the dried celery leaves with two parts of salt.
- After combining the leaves with the salt, you can then store it in a Mason jar and use it when needed.
Additional Notes:
Some brands of commercial salts tend to have anti-caking agents to prevent clumping. Without these agents, your homemade celery salt can end up sticking together. Fortunately, you can easily remedy this by using a piece of cheesecloth or a coffee filter then placing some dried rice in it.
After that, make sure you tie it shut then place it in the jar together with your salt. The rice will absorb any moisture that might be present, thus preventing instances of clumping.
Once your homemade salt is finished, you have to option to add certain ingredients to make your own customized version. Perhaps you want to add some black pepper or perhaps some cayenne for that extra spice. Just make sure that the ingredients you add have the same consistency as your salt.
Tips and Tricks
- You can also use Kosher salt to mix with your celery seed or leaves. However, you’ll want to use twice as much and mix it thoroughly with your celery seed or leaves.
- Don’t worry about buying celery seeds in bulk. They have a very long shelf-life, so you can expect them to last for a long time unless when ground.
Conclusion
The uses of celery salt can be limitless. Its use isn’t just limited to traditional cooking; in fact, you can also use it for baking, stews, and salads, specifically cold salads. Moreover, it’s typically used in certain beverages such as the Bloody Mary, and you can even add it to vegetable juices.
Once you made your own celery salt, you’ll be glad to find out that it tastes a lot better than its store-bought counterpart. However, just make sure you only use an appropriate amount of celery salt for your recipe to account for that extra salt your celery salt will add to your dish.
Hopefully, with the steps mentioned above, you will be able to create your own celery salt straight from your own kitchen.
If you have any comments or have confusion regarding the steps we’ve mentioned, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below. Meanwhile, you can share this with your friends so they can experience the wonders that celery salt has to offer.
As always, thanks for reading!
