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Tomato Relish

A preserved tomato relish with onions, celery, sugar, mustard seed, spices, and vinegar, stored in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 the tomatoes

  1. Peel and finely chop the tomatoes, then place them in a colander to drain and discard the juice, keeping the thick part.

Make the relish

  1. Add the chopped onions, celery, sugar, mustard seed, salt, black pepper, cinnamon, and red peppers to the thick tomato mixture.

  2. Stir in the vinegar until the desired consistency is reached.

Store

  1. Transfer the mixture into a stone jar or cans and seal tightly.

  2. This relish does not require cooking and can be stored indefinitely.

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. Celery + peppertop 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
Form the bulk of the relish, providing the main body and fresh tomato flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the relish.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar with sweetness.
White mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent bite and texture to the relish.
Onions
Contribute savoury depth and aromatic sharpness to the relish.
Red peppers
Add sweetness, colour and a mild crisp texture.

The step that matters

Draining the tomatoes. Tomatoes release a lot of watery juice. Discarding it keeps the relish thick, so the vinegar adjustment controls consistency rather than excess liquid diluting the flavour.

Swap the onion

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

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

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