Name: Ohio Corn Relish
Ingredients: 1 large head or 2 small heads of cabbage, finely chopped; 2 large mangoes, chopped; 2 green peppers, chopped; 2 red peppers, chopped; 1 cup sugar; 1 tablespoon whole white mustard seed; 1 tablespoon celery seed; Coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Ohio Corn Relish

Ingredients

1 large head or 2 small heads of cabbage, finely chopped
2 large mangoes, chopped
2 green peppers, chopped
2 red peppers, chopped
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon whole white mustard seed
1 tablespoon celery seed
Coarse sea salt to taste

Directions

Prepare

Finely chop the cabbage and place it in a large bowl.
Add the chopped mangoes, green peppers, and red peppers.
Stir in the sugar, mustard seed, celery seed, and salt to taste.

Cook and jar

Boil the mixture for a few minutes.
Transfer the relish into jars 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.

Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage: Forms the bulk of the relish and gives it a crisp, crunchy texture.
Mangoes: Add sweetness and fruity flavor that balances the sharpness of the peppers.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps preserve the relish by binding water.
Whole white mustard seed: Contributes a sharp, pungent flavor that mellows during cooking.

Swap the mango

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

Limefits better
Lemonfits better
Avocadofits about as well
Mangothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, sugar, mustard, celery. 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.