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Cheese Relish

A spread made from cheese, celery, olives, pickles, peppers, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cheese Relish

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, mix the cheese with enough salad dressing to make it smooth and spreadable.

  2. Add the chopped celery, olives, sour pickles, and green peppers one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  3. Season with salt and cayenne pepper to taste.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Celery + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,667 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Cheese + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,802 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  5. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 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

Mclaren's imperial cheese
Provides the main body, rich flavor, and creamy spreadable texture of the relish.
Salad dressing (in the method)
Adds moisture and tang, loosening the cheese into a smooth, spreadable mixture.
Chopped celery
Contributes crisp texture and fresh, mildly vegetal crunch against the soft cheese.
Chopped olives
Adds salty, briny flavor and a firm bite that contrasts with the cheese.
Chopped sour pickles
Adds acidity and sharp tang that cuts through the richness of the cheese.

The step that matters

Mixing in the salad dressing to a smooth, spreadable texture. Cheese does not blend smoothly on its own. Adding the dressing gradually and mixing thoroughly emulsifies the fat and moisture into a spreadable paste. Adding too little leaves lumps, while the chopped vegetables added later should be mixed in gently so the texture stays consistent.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, olive, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Rosemaryfits better
  3. Basilfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, olive, pepper. 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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