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Red and Green Pepper Relish

A relish made from red and green peppers, onions, sugar, vinegar, and salt, boiled and sealed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Red and Green Pepper Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Grind the red peppers, green peppers, and onions.

  2. Let the mixture stand in boiling water for 5 minutes, then drain.

  3. Let it stand in boiling water for another 10 minutes, then drain again.

Make and seal the relish

  1. In a pot, heat the sugar, vinegar, and salt until dissolved.

  2. Pour the hot mixture over the peppers and onions.

  3. Boil for 15 minutes, then seal while hot.

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 + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + sugartop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Pepper and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Red peppers
Provide the main bulk and mild sweetness of the relish.
Green peppers
Add bulk and a slightly sharper, more vegetal flavor than red peppers.
Small white onions
Contribute savory flavor and body to the chopped vegetable mixture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the relish its tang and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Draining after the boiling-water soaks. Thorough draining removes excess liquid so the relish does not become watery. Leftover water dilutes the vinegar and sugar syrup, weakening flavor and reducing the set and preservation the brine provides.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, sugar, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cabbagefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sugar, vinegar. 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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