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Tomato Relish

A relish made from ripe tomatoes, celery, sugar, onion, mustard seed, vinegar, and salt, uncooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Tomato Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Peel the tomatoes without scalding and chop them finely.

  2. Let the chopped tomatoes stand overnight.

  3. In the morning, drain the tomatoes well.

Combine and season

  1. Add the chopped celery, white sugar, chopped onion, white mustard seed, and vinegar.

  2. Season with salt to taste and do not cook.

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

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

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

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

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Make up the bulk of the relish and supply its fresh, juicy body.
Celery
Adds a crisp, crunchy texture that stays firm in the relish.
White sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Onion
Adds sharp, savory aroma and bite.
White mustard seed
Adds a mild, pungent heat and a distinct seeded flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity and tang that brightens the flavor and sharpens the sweetness.

The step that matters

Drain the tomatoes well. Salting and standing draws juice out of the tomatoes. If that liquid is not drained off, the relish turns watery and its flavors weaken.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, sugar, onion, mustard, 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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