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Piccalilli

Piccalilli is a pickled relish made from green tomatoes, onions, green peppers, salt, vinegar, brown sugar, spices, mustard, and turmeric.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard 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 ↓

Piccalilli

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the green tomatoes, onions, and green peppers, and layer them in a bowl.

  2. Sprinkle with 1 cup of coarse sea salt and let sit overnight.

  3. In the morning, press the mixture through a sieve to remove excess liquid.

Cook

  1. Transfer to a porcelain kettle and cover with vinegar.

  2. Add 1 cup of brown sugar and spices in a muslin bag.

  3. Stew slowly for about 1 hour, or until the tomatoes are as soft as desired.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Form the bulk of the relish and soften into a tender, chunky texture when stewed.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out excess liquid from the vegetables so the relish stays firmer and less watery.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the finished relish.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and depth that balances the sharp vinegar and salt.

The step that matters

Pressing off the liquid after salting. Salt draws a lot of water out of the vegetables overnight. Pressing it off before cooking keeps the relish from becoming diluted and watery, so the vinegar and sugar flavors stay concentrated.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, vinegar, sugar, celery, allspice, mustard):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, vinegar, sugar, celery, allspice, mustard. 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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