Celery Salt: Salt and Ground Celery Seed, How It’s Used and What It Contains

What’s actually in a jar of celery salt? Just salt and ground celery seed: McCormick’s version has exactly those two ingredients. The seed brings celery’s grassy, slightly bitter flavor, and the salt does most of the seasoning and carries nearly all the sodium. It’s the classic garnish on two American favorites, the Bloody Mary and the Chicago hot dog. And because it contains celery, the European Union treats it as an allergen that has to be flagged on food labels, though the United States doesn’t.

At a glance

What celery salt is

Celery salt is a blend, not an ingredient of its own. The seed comes from celery, Apium graveolens, a biennial in the parsley family (Apiaceae). Its native range runs from Macaronesia to North Africa and Europe to the western Himalaya. Brands use different ratios of salt to seed and different grinds, so the label is your only guide to what’s in a given jar.

Flavor and the compounds behind it

Celery seed is rich in essential oil, about 3% of its dry weight. A 2019 review puts celery essential oil at roughly 60% limonene, 20% to 30% phthalides and up to 13% β-selinene. It credits a group of phthalides, including sedanenolide and 3-n-butylphthalide, with that unmistakable celery smell. Those percentages are for celery oil in general, not seed oil specifically.²

So what does it taste like? Salty celery: green, a little bitter, with a savory depth that goes well with tomato, eggs and potatoes. The celery character comes from the phthalides, even though limonene is the single most abundant compound in the oil.

Origin and history

You’ll often see celery’s long history dressed up with references to Homer, early Chinese texts and Ayurvedic medicine, and you’ll sometimes read that celery salt is made from lovage seed. We couldn’t trace any of those to a source we could actually open, so they’re not here. The English word “celery” is recorded from 1664 and goes back, through French and Italian, to the Greek sélīnon. For more on the plant, see celery seeds and celery powder.

How celery salt is used

Drinks. The International Bartenders Association’s official Bloody Mary recipe calls for celery salt with Tabasco and pepper, added to taste.⁵

Hot dogs. A Chicago-style hot dog gets a shake of celery salt on top of yellow mustard, relish, chopped onion, tomato, a dill pickle spear and sport peppers.

Salads and rubs. It’s at home in coleslaw, potato salad and egg salad, and in dry rubs, where it adds salt and celery flavor in one go. We didn’t find anyone who’s written these up in a source we can cite, but they’re everyday uses.

Seasoning swaps. Celery salt is mostly salt, so cut back on the other salt in the recipe when you add it. Think of it as salt that tastes of celery, not celery seed that happens to be salty.

Buying and quality

Check the ingredient list. A plain celery salt should say salt and celery seed and not much else. Once a jar stops smelling clearly of celery, it’s time to replace it. We didn’t find a tested shelf life.

Storage

We couldn’t find a shelf-life figure for celery salt from a regulator or standards body. Keep it closed, dry and away from heat, like any ground spice.

Safety and health

Sodium. Celery salt is salt. McCormick’s label lists 270 mg of sodium per ¼ teaspoon, which works out to about 1,080 mg per teaspoon. By that label, two teaspoons would carry about 2,160 mg of sodium, close to the FDA’s Daily Value of less than 2,300 mg a day.¹⁶ The WHO recommends adults stay under 2,000 mg of sodium a day.⁷ You’ll sometimes read that celery salt is a good source of iron, manganese and calcium. We found no analysis of its mineral content, and at these amounts, sodium is the number that matters.

Health claims. Older writing credits celery seed with diuretic, blood-pressure and anticancer effects. We found no regulator or systematic review backing any of that for celery seed eaten as a seasoning, so we’re not making those claims.

Allergy. Celery is on the list in Annex II of the EU food information regulation (“Celery and products thereof”), and EU rules require listed allergens to stand out in the ingredient list, for example in bold.³ In the United States, celery isn’t one of the nine major food allergens (milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame), so US labels don’t have to flag it.⁴ If you’re allergic to celery, treat celery salt, and any blend that contains it, as celery.

Substitutes and comparisons

• Celery salt substitutes
• Celery seed vs. celery salt
• Celery powder vs. celery salt
• Celery seeds, celery seed substitutes and celery seed uses
• Lovage
• Other flavored salts: garlic salt, onion salt, seasoned salt