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Pepper Hash

A pickled mixture of peppers, cabbage, onions, sugar, mustard seed, celery seed, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Pepper Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Remove the seeds from half of the green peppers.

  2. Chop the skins with the other half.

  3. Chop the cabbage and onions.

  4. Mix the chopped ingredients with ½ cup of coarse sea salt.

  5. Let the mixture stand overnight.

Drain and season

  1. Drain the mixture well.

  2. Add 2 cups of sugar.

  3. Add ¼ cup of white mustard seed.

  4. Add 1 tablespoon of celery seed.

  5. Pour cold vinegar over the mixture until covered.

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

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

  4. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  5. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 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

Green peppers
Provide the main vegetable bulk and fresh, slightly bitter flavor.
Cabbage
Adds crisp texture and bulk that holds up during pickling.
Onions
Contribute sharp aromatic flavor that mellows during the long soak.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables, softening them and concentrating flavor.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness.
Cold vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the mixture and gives it its tang.

The step that matters

Drain the mixture well. Salted vegetables release a lot of liquid. If excess brine stays, the hash becomes watery and dilutes the vinegar and sugar added afterward, weakening both flavor and keeping quality.

Swap the onion

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

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

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