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Preserve

Corn Relish

A sweet and tangy relish made from cabbage, corn, sugar, salt, mustard, vinegar, peppers, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Corn Relish

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

  2. Cook slowly for one hour, stirring occasionally.

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. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  2. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Provides bulk and a crisp texture that softens during slow cooking.
Corn
Adds sweetness and body to the relish as it cooks down.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the relish its tang and helps preserve it.
Red peppers
Add colour, mild sweetness and a fresh vegetable bite.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid so the relish becomes less watery.

The step that matters

Cook slowly for one hour, stirring occasionally. Flour dissolved in vinegar thickens as it heats, but it can clump or scorch on the bottom of the pot if left unstirred. Regular stirring keeps the mixture even while the vegetables soften and the flavours blend.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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