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

Celery salt is salt mixed with ground celery seed; McCormick’s lists just “Salt & Celery Seed.”¹ That makes it one of the easiest seasonings to replace, because the two ingredients are probably already in your kitchen. The one thing to get right is the salt. Celery salt is mostly salt by flavor and by sodium, so the swap is really about matching the salt and then adding celery to taste.

Quick answer

How the ratios on this page are labeled

• Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship, with the source named.
• Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
• Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. We show each one and do not average them.
• Method: we found no published ratio. We give a direction and a cautious starting point, and say so.

The salt figure on this page is computed from a product label and an FDA figure. The celery figures are starting points: no source we read 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 is doing two jobs at once: salting the food and adding a celery note. Replace each part separately and you can 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 which is 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 carries 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 check the sodium line on the label of the celery salt your recipe was written for, if you know it.

Celery seed (Method): We found no published figure for the seed content of commercial celery salt, so there is no way to compute the seed amount. Start with 1/4 teaspoon of ground celery seed per teaspoon of celery salt replaced, taste, and add more. Celery seed is concentrated: its aroma is much stronger than the leaf’s or root’s, according to Katzer,³ and its essential oil, which carries the phthalides that give celery its smell, makes up about 3% of its dry weight.⁴ Grind the seed for even seasoning; 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.⁵ We don’t give a volume conversion here; our kosher salt page sets 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.⁶ Dill is in the same plant family as celery, the Apiaceae, and Britannica describes its flavor as warm, slightly sharp and somewhat reminiscent of caraway.⁷ It will taste of dill, not celery.

Ratio (Method): No published ratio was found. Use the salt amount above, and start with 1/4 teaspoon of ground dill seed per teaspoon of celery salt replaced.

4. Caraway and salt

The Spice House calls caraway seeds an excellent substitute for celery seed in coleslaw.⁶ Britannica notes caraway’s use in meat dishes, breads and cheese, and describes its aroma as reminiscent of anise.⁸

Ratio (Method): No published ratio was found. Use the salt amount above, and start with a pinch of ground caraway. In our judgment its 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.⁹ A Chicago-style hot dog is finished with celery salt along with its other toppings.¹⁰ 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.¹¹ The same page says purchased blends use ratios between 1:1 and 2:1, without saying which ingredient is the larger part.¹¹

Swap (Method): 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 was written for. Start with an equal amount and adjust to taste. For a rim or a garnish, that is 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. McCormick’s label figure means 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, but they bring no salt, and Katzer describes the seed’s aroma as much stronger than the leaf’s.³

Ratio (Method): No published ratio was found. Salt the dish as above and add a few tablespoons of finely chopped celery early enough to soften.

A note on lovage

Celery salt is sometimes said to be made from lovage seed. McCormick’s label lists celery seed.¹ Lovage is a separate plant, Levisticum officinale, with a sweet, celery-like flavor; Britannica notes its seeds are used to flavor confectionery and liqueurs.¹² We found no source on using lovage seed in place of celery salt. If you have it, our suggestion is to treat it like celery seed, using the Method amounts above.

What isn’t known

• No source we read publishes the salt-to-seed ratio of commercial celery salts, and the one source that gives a range for store-bought blends does not say which way round it runs.
• The salt conversion above is computed from one brand’s label and the FDA’s rounded figure for a teaspoon of table salt. Other brands may differ.
• No published study compares the flavor strength of celery seed, dill seed, caraway or lovage seed.

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 ↩⁴

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 ↩ ↩²

4. Salehi et al., Apium Plants: Beyond Simple Food and Phytopharmacological Applications, Applied Sciences, 2019. mdpi.com · Peer-reviewed ↩

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

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

7. Dill, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com · Reference work ↩

8. Caraway, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com · Reference work ↩

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

10. Howard Yoon, Chicago-Style Hot Dogs with “the Works,” NPR. npr.org · Publication ↩

11. Sonja Overhiser, Celery Salt, A Couple Cooks. acouplecooks.com · Publication ↩ ↩²

12. Lovage, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com · Reference work ↩