Name: Uncooked Tomato Relish
Ingredients: 1 peck (about 8 quarts) ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped fine; 6 medium-sized onions, chopped fine; 2 cups celery, chopped fine; 1 small cup coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 5 cups vinegar; 2 ounces white mustard seed; 3 pounds brown sugar; horseradish (to taste)

Why it works: Mustard and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Uncooked Tomato Relish

Ingredients

1 peck (about 8 quarts) ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped fine
6 medium-sized onions, chopped fine
2 cups celery, chopped fine
1 small cup coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')
5 cups vinegar
2 ounces white mustard seed
3 pounds brown sugar
horseradish (to taste)

Directions

Prepare

Drain the chopped tomatoes overnight in a thin bag.
Combine the drained tomatoes, onions, celery, salt, vinegar, mustard seed, and brown sugar in a large bowl.

Finish and bottle

Add a small quantity of horseradish to each jar.
Allow the mixture to stand for a couple of days, mixing frequently before bottling.

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.

Mustard + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,832 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Celery + horseradishtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together835 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes: Form the bulk of the relish and provide its fresh, juicy body.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the relish.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the acid and deepens the flavour.
Onions: Contribute savoury sharpness and aromatic depth as they soften and mellow.
Mustard seed: Adds pungent, slightly bitter heat and a distinctive crunch.

The step that matters

Draining the tomatoes overnight. Tomatoes release a lot of water. Removing it first keeps the relish thick rather than thin and watery, and stops the vinegar and sugar from being diluted.

Swap the tomato

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

Beetrootfits better
Broccolifits better
Lettucefits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, celery, vinegar, mustard, sugar, horseradish. 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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Uncooked Tomato Relish