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Pepper Relish

A pickled relish made from red and green peppers, onions, vinegar, sugar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pepper Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Remove seeds from the peppers.

  2. Chop the onions and peppers using a meat chopper.

  3. Cover the chopped mixture with boiling water, then drain.

  4. Cover with cold water, bring to a boil, and drain again.

Make and seal the relish

  1. In a granite kettle, combine vinegar, sugar, and salt; heat until scalding hot.

  2. Pour the hot mixture over the peppers and onions.

  3. Cook for 1 minute, then seal in 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. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  5. Pepper + sugartop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Pepper and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 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

Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the relish its tang and helps preserve it.
Sugar
Balances the acidity and adds sweetness that softens the sharpness of the vinegar.
Onions
Add savory flavor and bulk to the relish.
Red peppers
Contribute sweetness, color, and fresh pepper flavor to the relish.
Green peppers
Add a slightly sharper, vegetal flavor and texture to the relish.

The step that matters

Draining after the boiling water and cold water rinses. Draining well removes excess water from the chopped vegetables, so the relish stays crisp and the vinegar mixture is not diluted.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cabbagefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, 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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