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Tomato Relish

A pickled relish made from green tomatoes, peppers, onions, vinegar, sugar, horseradish, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tomato Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the green tomatoes.

  2. Chop the green peppers and onions.

  3. Sprinkle salt over the vegetables and let them stand overnight.

  4. In the morning, drain off the water.

Cook and jar

  1. Put the vegetables in a kettle and add enough vinegar to cover them.

  2. Add sugar, horseradish, cloves, allspice, and cinnamon.

  3. Boil until soft, then pack into jars.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Horseradish + allspicetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Onion + horseradishtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the relish and soften into a chunky texture when boiled.
Onions
Add savory flavor and body as they soften in the vinegar.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness.
Vinegar
Acts as the preserving liquid and provides the tangy acidity.
Horseradish
Adds a sharp, pungent heat that mellows during cooking.

The step that matters

Salting and draining overnight. Salt draws water out of the vegetables through osmosis. Draining that liquid before cooking keeps the relish from becoming watery and helps the vegetables stay firmer in the final jars.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, onion, vinegar, sugar, horseradish, clove, allspice):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, onion, vinegar, sugar, horseradish, clove, allspice. 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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