Name: Beet Relish
Ingredients: 2 cups chopped cooked beets; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup grated horseradish root; ¼ teaspoon salt; Vinegar to cover

Why it works: Horseradish and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Beet Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the chopped cooked beets, sugar, grated horseradish, and salt in a bowl.
Add vinegar to cover the mixture.
Serve cold as a relish with meat.

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.

Horseradish + vinegartop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,609 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + horseradishtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,314 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Beets: Provide the main body, colour and earthy sweetness of the relish.
Sugar: Sweetens the relish and balances the sharpness of the horseradish and vinegar.
Horseradish root: Adds a pungent, sharp heat that gives the relish its characteristic bite.