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Corn Relish

A relish of sweet corn and chopped cabbage flavored with mustard, cider vinegar, salt, celery seed, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Corn Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the kernels from the corn and combine with chopped cabbage in a large pot.

Cook

  1. Add mustard, cider vinegar, salt, celery seed, and sugar to the pot.

  2. Cook over medium heat for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sweet corn
Provides the bulk and sweet, tender kernels that make up most of the relish.
Cabbage
Adds crisp texture that holds up during long cooking.
Mustard
Contributes sharp, pungent flavor that balances the sweetness.
Cider vinegar
Supplies acidity that preserves the relish and brightens its flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that offsets the acidity of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Cooking over medium heat with occasional stirring. Stirring keeps the mixture from scorching on the bottom of the pot while the vegetables soften and the vinegar and sugar blend into a cohesive relish.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, cabbage, mustard, cider, vinegar, sugar):

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, cabbage, mustard, cider, vinegar, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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