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Dessert

Cranberry Relish

A preserved relish made from cranberries, sugar, vinegar, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Cranberry Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pulp

  1. Cook cranberries in a little water until soft.

  2. Strain the cranberries.

Make the relish

  1. Boil cloves in vinegar for 10 minutes, then remove cloves.

  2. Add the vinegar to the cranberry pulp and cook for 1 hour.

  3. Stir in sugar and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

Bottle and serve

  1. Bottle the relish and use it with meats.

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. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Clove + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Clove and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cranberries
Form the body of the relish and supply its tart, fruity flavor.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and carries the clove flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the relish and balances the sharpness of the vinegar and cranberries.
Cloves
Add warm, spiced aroma as they steep in the vinegar before it joins the cranberries.

The step that matters

Cooking the pulp with vinegar for 1 hour. Long simmering evaporates water and thickens the pulp into a relish. Too little time leaves it thin, while too much heat can scorch the sugar-rich fruit on the bottom of the pan, so stir often.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Peppermintfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar. 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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