Celery Salt Substitutes: Make Your Own, or Swap in Celery Seed and Salt

Out of celery salt? It’s nothing more than salt and celery seed, so you can probably make your own from what’s already in the cabinet. The one thing to get right is the salt: a teaspoon of celery salt has a little under half the sodium of a teaspoon of table salt, so start with about 1/2 teaspoon of table salt and add ground celery seed to taste. For a Bloody Mary or a Chicago-style hot dog, a quick homemade blend does the job.

Quick answer

How the ratios on this page are labeled

• Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship.
• Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
• Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. You get each one, side by side.
• Method: our starting point, based on how the two compare. Taste and adjust.

The salt figure here is worked out from a product label and an FDA figure. The celery amounts are starting points, because none of our sources publishes how much seed a commercial celery salt contains.

If celery salt is seasoning a dish

In slaws, potato and egg salads, dressings and dry rubs, celery salt does two jobs at once: it salts the food and adds a celery note. Replace each part separately and you control both.

1. Table salt plus ground celery seed

Salt (Computed): McCormick’s label gives 270 mg of sodium per 1/4 teaspoon of celery salt,¹ or about 1,080 mg per teaspoon. The FDA says 2,300 mg of sodium is about 1 teaspoon of table salt.² So a teaspoon of this celery salt has a little under half the sodium of a teaspoon of table salt. Replace each teaspoon of celery salt with about 1/2 teaspoon of table salt. Brands differ, so if you know which celery salt your recipe was written for, check the sodium line on its label.

Celery seed (Method): Start with 1/4 teaspoon of ground celery seed per teaspoon of celery salt, taste, and add more. Celery seed is concentrated. Katzer says its aroma is much stronger than the leaf’s or root’s.³ Grind the seed for even seasoning, since whole seed adds crunch.

2. Celery seed with another salt you have

The same split works with kosher salt, but not teaspoon for teaspoon. America’s Test Kitchen weighs a teaspoon of table salt at about 6 grams, Morton kosher salt at 4.8 grams and Diamond Crystal kosher salt at 2.8 grams.⁴ We don’t give a volume conversion here. Our kosher salt page lays out the published figures and where they disagree. See also table salt.

3. Dill seed and salt

The Spice House lists dill seeds as a substitute for celery seed.⁵ Dill seed tastes warm, slightly sharp and a bit like caraway. It’ll taste of dill, not celery.

Ratio (Method): Use the salt amount above, and start with 1/4 teaspoon of ground dill seed per teaspoon of celery salt.

4. Caraway and salt

The Spice House calls caraway seeds an excellent substitute for celery seed in coleslaw.⁵ Caraway goes into meat dishes, breads and cheese, and its aroma is reminiscent of anise.

Ratio (Method): Use the salt amount above, and start with a pinch of ground caraway. That anise-like note can take over a dish.

If celery salt is a finishing touch

The International Bartenders Association’s official Bloody Mary recipe lists celery salt, Tabasco and pepper, added to taste.⁶ A Chicago-style hot dog gets finished with celery salt along with its other toppings. Here the look and the quick hit of salt and celery matter, so a ready-mixed blend works best.

Homemade celery salt

Recipe ratio (Attributed): A Couple Cooks makes celery salt from 1 1/2 parts celery seed to 1 part kosher salt, ground together until fine and powdery. Its recipe uses 1 1/2 tablespoons of celery seed and 1 tablespoon of kosher salt. The same page says store-bought blends use ratios between 1:1 and 2:1, without saying which ingredient is the bigger part.⁷

Swap: A blend with more seed than salt is less salty, spoon for spoon, than one with more salt than seed, and we can’t tell which kind your recipe had in mind. Start with an equal amount and adjust to taste. For a rim or a garnish, that’s usually all you need.

If you want celery flavor with less salt

Use ground celery seed on its own, starting with a pinch, and salt the dish separately so you can see how much sodium goes in. By McCormick’s label figure, 2 teaspoons of its celery salt carry about 2,160 mg of sodium,¹ close to the FDA’s Daily Value of less than 2,300 mg.²

Fresh celery, in soups and braises

Chopped celery stalks or leaves add celery flavor where moisture and texture don’t matter. They bring no salt, though, and the seed’s aroma is much stronger than the leaf’s.

Ratio (Method): Salt the dish as above and add a few tablespoons of finely chopped celery early enough that it softens.

A note on lovage

You’ll sometimes read that celery salt is made from lovage seed. McCormick’s label lists celery seed.¹ Lovage is a separate plant with a sweet, celery-like flavor. We found no source on using lovage seed in place of celery salt. If you have some, treat it like celery seed and use the amounts above.

What isn’t known

• None of the sources we read publishes the salt-to-seed ratio of commercial celery salts, and the one that gives a range for store-bought blends doesn’t say which way round it runs.
• The salt conversion above comes from one brand’s label and the FDA’s rounded figure for a teaspoon of table salt. Other brands may differ.

Related

• Celery salt, celery seeds and lovage
• Celery seed vs. celery salt and celery powder vs. celery salt
• Celery seed substitutes and celery powder substitutes
• Dill seed vs. dill weed, caraway seeds
• Other flavored salts: garlic salt substitutes, onion salt substitutes, seasoned salt substitutes

Footnotes

1. McCormick Celery Salt, label ingredients and Nutrition Facts as listed by Stop & Shop. stopandshop.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Sodium in Your Diet, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. fda.gov · Regulator ↩ ↩²

3. Gernot Katzer, Celery (Apium graveolens), Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩

4. Kate Shannon Levine, The Best Kosher Salt, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩

5. Celery Seed Substitute, The Spice House. thespicehouse.com · Merchant ↩ ↩²

6. Bloody Mary, International Bartenders Association. iba-world.com · Standard ↩

7. Sonja Overhiser, Celery Salt, A Couple Cooks. acouplecooks.com · Publication ↩

Also drawn on

• Chicago-Style Hot Dogs with ‘the Works’ (Howard Yoon), NPR. npr.org
• Lovage (Britannica Editors; revised by Melissa Petruzzello), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com
• Dill (revised and updated by Melissa Petruzzello, updated 30 Sep 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com
• Caraway, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com