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Tomato Relish

A preserved tomato relish made with tomatoes, onions, peppers, celery, vinegar, sugar, salt, mustard seed, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

  1. Chop the tomatoes, onions, and red peppers finely.

  2. Drain the chopped tomatoes overnight.

Combine and store

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well and store in jars.

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

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

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

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

  5. Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Provide the bulk and moisture base of the relish, which the overnight draining reduces.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the relish its tang and helps preserve it in jars.
Onions
Add savory flavor and body to the chopped relish.
Red peppers
Add sweetness, color and body to the chopped relish.
White mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavor to the relish.

The step that matters

Drain the chopped tomatoes overnight. Tomatoes hold a lot of free water. Draining removes some of it, so the relish stays thick rather than watery and does not dilute the vinegar and sugar.

Swap the onion

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

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

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