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Tomato Relish

A sweet and tangy tomato relish made with tomatoes, celery, onions, peppers, brown sugar, mustard seed, sea salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Tomato Relish

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop the tomatoes and celery finely and drain overnight.

  2. Chop the onions and peppers and add them to the drained mixture.

  3. Stir in the brown sugar, white mustard seed, coarse sea salt, and vinegar, then mix well.

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

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Forms the bulk of the relish and supplies moisture and body once drained.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the relish and helps preserve it.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
White mustard seed
Contributes a pungent, savoury bite to the relish's flavour.

The step that matters

Drain the chopped tomatoes and celery overnight. Tomatoes and celery release a lot of water as they sit. Draining removes that liquid first, so the finished relish stays thick rather than watery and the flavours are not diluted.

Swap the onion

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

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

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