Skip to main content
Bread

Corn Relish

A relish made from peppers, cabbage, corn, sugar, vinegar, mustard, salt, and celery seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

  1. Chop the peppers and cabbage.

  2. Cut the corn off the cobs.

Cook and seal

  1. In a large pot, combine all ingredients.

  2. Cook for 30 minutes.

  3. Seal the mixture while hot.

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. 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

Sweet corn
Adds sweetness and tender bite to the relish.
Cabbage
Provides crisp texture and bulk that softens slightly during cooking.
Peppers
Contribute fresh, mild vegetable flavour and colour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps keep the relish stable.
Sugar
Balances the vinegar's sharpness with sweetness.
White mustard
Adds a sharp, pungent flavour that mellows during cooking.

The step that matters

Seal the mixture while hot. Hot food sealed promptly keeps the relish at a high temperature as it cools, which helps the lid form a firm seal. Letting it cool too much before sealing can leave it poorly sealed.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

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

You might also like

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes