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Welsh Rarebit Pickle

A pickled relish of green tomatoes, peppers, onions, raisins, and spices in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Welsh Rarebit Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Sprinkle chopped green tomatoes, green peppers, and onions with coarse sea salt.

  2. Let the mixture stand overnight.

  3. Drain the mixture the next day.

Cook the pickle

  1. Place the drained mixture in a kettle.

  2. Add light brown sugar, raisins, ground cloves, ground mace, and ground cinnamon to the kettle.

  3. Cover the mixture with vinegar.

  4. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  5. Boil for two hours, stirring occasionally.

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 + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Peach + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together280 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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 pickle and add tart, acidic body as they cook down.
Light brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the pickle as it cooks down into a syrupy texture.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness during the long simmer.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the pickle its sharp, preserving tang.
Onions
Contribute savory depth and body as they soften during cooking.
Green peppers
Add bulk, mild bitterness and crisp-tender texture to the pickle.

The step that matters

Draining after the overnight salt rest. Salt draws water out of the vegetables overnight. Draining well removes that liquid so the pickle thickens properly and doesn't turn watery or overly salty once the sugar and vinegar go in.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peach, tomato, pepper, onion, sugar, raisin, clove):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peach, tomato, pepper, onion, sugar, raisin, clove. 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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