Name: Corn Relish
Ingredients: 1 head cabbage, chopped finely; 6 red peppers, seeds removed and chopped; 4 onions, chopped; 1 quart water; ½ cup coarse sea salt; 2 cups sugar; ¾ lb mustard; corn from 12 ears of green corn, cut off the cob

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

Prepare

Chop the cabbage, red peppers and onions until fine.

Make the relish

Combine the water, coarse sea salt, sugar and mustard in a pot.
Bring to a boil.
Add the chopped vegetables and cook until tender.
Stir in the corn.
Cook for an additional 10 minutes.

Can

Can the mixture while hot.

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.

Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,001 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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-tender texture once cooked.
Red peppers: Add sweetness, colour and body to the relish.
Onions: Add savoury depth and aroma as they soften in the brine.
Sugar: Balances the vinegar-free brine and adds sweetness.
Corn: Adds sweetness and a tender bite to the finished relish.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Horseradishfits better
Broccolifits better
Onionthe original

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