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Sweet Relish

A condiment made from ground green tomatoes, celery, mangoes, pickles, cabbage, onions, and spices, simmered and sealed in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery 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 ↓

Sweet Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Grind all the vegetables separately using a food chopper.

  2. Press out all surplus juice and sprinkle salt on each vegetable; let them stand.

Make the relish

  1. Boil the vinegar with grated nutmeg, cinnamon sticks, brown sugar, whole spices, and black pepper. Strain the spices from the vinegar and combine the vegetables in an aluminum or granite kettle.

  2. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.

  3. Add a little green fruit coloring to improve the color.

Seal the jars

  1. Pour hot paraffin wax over the top and seal in pint self-sealing 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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mustard + cabbagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + mangotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together225 recipes

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

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 its fresh, tart body once cooked.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the relish its sharp flavour and helps preserve it.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and depth that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Cabbage
Adds texture and body to the relish after cooking.
Onions
Contributes savoury aroma and flavour to the mixed vegetables.

The step that matters

Press out the surplus juice. Salting and pressing draw out excess water from the vegetables. If too much juice remains, the relish will be watery and may not set well in the jars.

Swap the mango

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, mustard, celery, cider, vinegar, cabbage, onion):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Plumfits about as well
  4. Mangothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, mustard, celery, cider, vinegar, cabbage, onion. 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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