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Salad

TomaTO RELIsH

A pickled relish of tomatoes, peppers, onions, cucumbers, and pickles, seasoned with mustard, celery seed, turmeric, and brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 vegetables

  1. Chop the tomatoes, peppers, onions, and cucumbers finely.

  2. Salt each vegetable separately and let stand for 24 hours.

  3. Press out all the water from the vegetables. Ensure all salt is pressed out of each vegetable before boiling.

Make the relish

  1. Boil the tomatoes in weak vinegar water for 15 minutes and press as dry as possible.

  2. In a pot, combine 2 quarts of vinegar, celery seed, brown mustard seed, yellow mustard, turmeric, and brown sugar.

  3. Boil the mixture for 30 minutes.

  4. Just before sealing, add the small onions and tiny tim pickles.

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. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the relish and, once pressed dry, a firm, chunky texture.
Cucumbers
Add crisp texture and fresh bulk that holds up through pickling.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the vegetables and sets the tangy flavour.
Brown mustard seed
Contributes a pungent, sharp flavour that deepens during boiling.
Yellow mustard
Adds tangy, mustardy flavour and colour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Pressing out the salt and water. Salt draws water out of the vegetables, but any salt left behind makes the relish overly salty once boiled and reduced. Pressing the vegetables thoroughly removes both the excess water and the salt, so the relish stays crisp and balanced.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, onion, cucumber, vinegar, celery, mustard, cream):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, onion, cucumber, vinegar, celery, mustard, cream. 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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