Celery salt is the pinch that makes a Bloody Mary taste finished: ground celery seed and salt together, savoury and faintly bitter, it seasons the tomato juice from inside and, on the rim, hits the tongue before every sip. It is in every tomato drink on this site, from the Red Snapper to the beer-based Red Eye, and a jar costs two dollars and lasts a year.

What is celery salt?

A seasoning blend of fine salt and ground celery seed (the seed of a wild celery, Apium graveolens, not the garden vegetable), usually about two parts salt to one part seed, sometimes with a little of the dried leaf. The seed carries the concentrated, slightly bitter, green flavour that celery has, and the salt carries it into the drink. It is an American pantry staple of the twentieth century, the seasoning on a Chicago hot dog and in Old Bay, and it came to the Bloody Mary with the drink's elaboration in the 1930s and 1940s, when the St. Regis and the bartenders who followed added salt, pepper, Worcestershire, hot sauce, lemon and celery to the plain vodka-and-tomato original. A pinch in the drink and a celery-salt rim are both standard now, and the celery-stick garnish echoes the same flavour. Celery seed on its own is stronger and can stand in; the salt is the convenience.

What it does to a drink

Salt, obviously, and under it the warm, vegetal, slightly bitter note of celery that makes tomato juice taste savoury and seasoned rather than merely salty; it is the difference between a Bloody Mary and a glass of tomato juice with vodka. It pairs with tomato, with Worcestershire and hot sauce, with lemon and lime, with horseradish and black pepper, with vodka, gin, tequila and beer, with Clamato in a Caesar (where it is mandatory), and with cucumber and pickles. On a rim, mixed with black pepper or Old Bay, it is the savoury version of a Margarita's salt.

How to use it

A pinch (an eighth of a teaspoon) into the mixing tin with the other seasonings before the juice; two pinches for a pint. For a rim, run a lemon wedge around the outside of the glass and dip it in a plate of celery salt, or a mix of celery salt and black pepper. For a batch, a teaspoon per litre of seasoned juice, tasted after an hour. To make your own, toast a tablespoon of celery seed in a dry pan for a minute, grind it, and mix with two tablespoons of fine sea salt; it is fresher and greener than the jar. Dried celery leaves, ground, make a brighter version.

Substitutes

Celery seed, a smaller pinch, plus a pinch of plain salt. Old Bay seasoning, which contains celery salt and adds paprika and spice. A dash of celery bitters, for the flavour without the salt. A stalk of celery muddled in the tin. Plain salt and a grind of pepper, which seasons without the celery note.

What to buy

McCormick or any supermarket celery salt is fine; Spice Islands and Penzeys are fresher. Whole celery seed from a spice merchant, to grind your own. A small jar; it fades within a year.

Storage and shelf life

A year in a sealed jar away from heat and light, after which the celery note fades and only the salt is left; home-made, a few months. Keep the rimming plate dry.

Cocktails with celery salt

The tomato family: the Bloody Mary, the Red Snapper and the Bloody Maria. The beer one: the Red Eye. Alcohol-free: the Virgin Mary. Every drink that uses celery salt is listed below.

Questions

What is celery salt made of? Fine salt and ground celery seed, about two to one, sometimes with dried leaf.

How much in a Bloody Mary? A pinch in the tin, and a rim if you like it; two pinches in a pint glass.

Can I use celery seed instead? Yes, a smaller pinch, plus a little salt; it is stronger.

Does it go in a Caesar? Yes; a celery-salt rim is the Canadian Caesar's defining garnish.