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Pepper Haste

A pickled relish of cabbage, onions, green and red peppers, celery, salt, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Pepper Haste

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cabbage, onions, and peppers finely.

  2. Stir in the salt and let the mixture stand overnight.

  3. In the morning, drain the mixture well.

Make the relish

  1. Add spices and sugar, then cover with vinegar.

  2. Heat on the stove until the sugar melts, but do not boil.

  3. Seal well and store in a cool place.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 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

Salt
Draws water out of the vegetables overnight, helping them stay crisp and firm.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
White wine vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the relish and gives it a tangy flavor.
White mustard
Adds pungent flavor and a sharp bite to the relish.

The step that matters

Heat until the sugar melts, but do not boil. Gentle heat dissolves the sugar into the vinegar without overcooking the vegetables. Boiling would soften the cabbage and peppers and can drive off flavor and aroma.

Swap the onion

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

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

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