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Indian Relish

A spicy green vegetable relish made with tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, celery, cauliflower, peppers, mustard, brown sugar, turmeric, and cider vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and cauliflower match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 584 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Indian Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop all vegetables finely except for the green peppers.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt, cover with a weighted plate, and let stand overnight.

  3. Drain the vegetables.

Make the relish

  1. In a pot, thoroughly blend mustard, brown sugar, turmeric powder, and scalded cider vinegar.

  2. Boil the mixture until it thickens.

  3. Add the chopped vegetables and finely cut green peppers.

  4. Boil slowly for 1 hour.

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. Cucumber + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

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

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 a tart, fresh base flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables, firming them and concentrating their flavour.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and body to the sauce, balancing the vinegar's sharpness.
Cider vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the relish.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour and helps thicken the sauce.
Onions
Contribute savoury depth and aroma as they soften during the long boil.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture until it thickens. Mustard, sugar and vinegar must reduce to a thick base before the vegetables go in. Stop too early and the relish stays thin and watery, while over-boiling makes it stiff and sticky.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cucumber, celery, cauliflower, pepper, mustard, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cucumber, celery, cauliflower, pepper, mustard, 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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