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Gooseberry Relish

A preserved relish made from gooseberries, walnuts, cayenne pepper, vinegar, salt, sugar, and cornstarch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,039 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Gooseberry Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gooseberries

  1. Cook and strain 1 pint of gooseberries until dry, preferably by steaming.

  2. Sift the pulp through a fine sieve.

Make the relish

  1. Add 1 cup of chopped English walnuts, 1½ teaspoons of cayenne pepper, ¼ cup of strong vinegar, 1 teaspoon of salt, and ¼ cup of sugar.

  2. Boil the mixture for 1 hour.

  3. If the relish is not as thick as catsup, stir in 1 teaspoon of cornstarch blended with 1 tablespoon of vinegar.

Serve

  1. Serve cold with meat or fish.

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. Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  4. Walnut + vinegartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Walnut + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,147 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Gooseberries
Provide the fruit pulp that forms the body and tartness of the relish.
English walnuts
Add crunch and a rich, nutty texture to the thick relish.
Strong vinegar
Adds sharpness that balances the sweetness and fruit flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the acidity of the vinegar and fruit.
Cornstarch
Thickens the relish if it is still loose after boiling.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture for 1 hour. Long boiling evaporates surplus water and concentrates the pulp, sugar and vinegar so the relish thickens and keeps well. Stopping early leaves it thin and watery, which is why the cornstarch step may be needed.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Sesamefits better
  2. Black-eyed peafits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, 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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