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Mustard Relish

A relish made from finely chopped cabbage, peppers, tomatoes, celery, onions, and a mustard‑vinegar dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard 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 ↓

Mustard Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the vegetables

  1. Chop the cabbage, red peppers, green tomatoes, celery, and onions finely.

  2. In a jar, layer the chopped vegetables with coarse sea salt.

  3. Let the mixture stand overnight.

  4. Drain the vegetables well and prepare the dressing.

Make the dressing

  1. Mix the flour and mustard with a little cold vinegar.

  2. Boil the vinegar and brown sugar together.

  3. Slowly add the flour and mustard mixture to the boiling vinegar and sugar.

  4. Stir until the dressing is thick like cream, then mix in the pickles thoroughly.

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. Celery + mustardtop 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. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the relish and gives it a firm, crisp bite.
Wheat flour
Thickens the dressing so it becomes creamy rather than watery.
Colman's mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that defines the relish.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the vegetables and sharpens the flavor.
Onions
Add savory depth and aroma to the relish.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour and mustard into the boiling vinegar. Flour thickens only when heated in liquid, and adding it too fast or without a smooth paste-like mix can leave lumps. Stirring steadily while adding it slowly lets the starch gelatinize evenly into a smooth, creamy dressing.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, pepper, celery, onion, vinegar, mustard, sugar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, celery, onion, vinegar, mustard, 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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