Skip to main content

Tomato Relish

Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Garlic and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,075 recipes mention both. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4-6
Prep30 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Finely chop the onion, garlic and red chilli. Roughly chop the capers and baby gherkins. Chop the fresh coriander and set it aside.

  2. Heat a little oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring, until soft.

  3. Add the garlic and chilli and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly, until fragrant.

  4. Add the chopped tomatoes, red wine vinegar and sugar. Stir well and bring to a simmer.

  5. Reduce the heat to low-medium and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thickened.

  6. Stir in the capers, gherkins and half of the chopped coriander. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

  7. Simmer for 5 more minutes, then let the relish cool. Stir in the remaining coriander before serving.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Garlic + tomatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together14,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Tomato + red winetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together806 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together17,913 recipes

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

  5. Red wine + vinegartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together569 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the capers

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, garlic, tomato, red wine, vinegar, sugar, pepper):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Basilbetter flavor fit
  3. Corianderbetter flavor fit
  4. Capersthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, garlic, tomato, red wine, vinegar, sugar, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).