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Preserve

Beet Relish

A chopped relish of cooked beets, cabbage, horseradish and celery, seasoned with sugar, salt, mustard seed and celery seed, and covered in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and mustard 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 ↓

Beet Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the chopped beets, raw cabbage, grated horseradish, and chopped celery in a large bowl.

  2. Add the sugar, salt, white mustard seed, and celery seed. Pour in enough vinegar to cover the mixture.

Cook and can

  1. Bring the mixture to a boiling point.

  2. Can the relish in sterilized jars.

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. Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  5. Horseradish + celerytop 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

Beets
Provide the main body, color, and earthy sweetness of the relish.
Cabbage
Adds crisp texture and bulk that holds up after cooking.
Horseradish
Contributes the sharp, pungent heat that defines the relish.
Sugar
Balances the vinegar's acidity and adds sweetness.
Vinegar
Acidifies the relish, adding tang and helping preserve it.

The step that matters

Bringing the mixture to a boil. The mixture must be heated thoroughly so the vinegar, sugar and salt are evenly distributed and the relish is hot enough for safe jarring. Stirring prevents scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, horseradish, sugar, mustard, 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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