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Spiced Beet Relish

A pickled relish made with beets, vinegar, sugar, mace, cinnamon, mustard seeds, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Spiced Beet Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickling liquid

  1. In a granite saucepan, combine vinegar, sugar, mace, cinnamon stick, mustard seeds, and cloves.

  2. Boil the mixture until the vinegar is reduced by half.

Cook the relish

  1. Add the sliced or diced beets to the saucepan.

  2. Cook slowly over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes.

  3. Serve hot or cold, or store in mason jars like other pickles.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Cinnamon + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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, color and mild earthy sweetness of the relish.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the relish its sharp, tangy flavor and helps preserve it.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar and adds sweetness.
Mustard seeds
Contribute a pungent, slightly bitter aroma and flavor when simmered.

The step that matters

Boil the vinegar down by half before adding the beets. Reducing the vinegar concentrates its acidity and flavor, so the relish tastes sharp rather than watery and is less likely to spoil once the beets are added.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, mustard, clove. 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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