Name: Corn Relish
Ingredients: 12 ears corn; 1 head cabbage; 2 tablespoons mustard seed; 1 cup sugar; 1 tablespoon celery seed; 3 pints vinegar; 6 peppers (4 green and 2 red), chopped fine; Salt to taste

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 the corn

Boil the corn for 10 minutes, then let it cool and cut it off the cob.

Make the relish

Mix the corn, chopped cabbage, mustard seed, sugar, celery seed, vinegar, and chopped peppers in a large pot, then add salt to taste.
Boil the mixture for 20 minutes.

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.

Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Corn: Provides the bulk and sweet, tender body of the relish.
Cabbage: Adds crunch and bulk that holds up through cooking.
Vinegar: Supplies acidity that preserves the relish and sharpens its flavour.
Sugar: Balances the acidity of the vinegar with sweetness.
Peppers: Add mild heat and fresh, vegetal flavour.

Swap the cabbage

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

Capsicumfits better
Lettucefits better
Horseradishfits better
Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, mustard, sugar, celery, vinegar, 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.