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Corn Relish

A pickled relish of corn, cabbage, peppers, onion, vinegar, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,279 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Corn Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the corn

  1. Select small, tender corn and cut it from the cob without cutting too deep.

  2. Scrape the cobs to collect the hearts of the corn.

Cook the relish

  1. Place the corn and vinegar in a large pot and cook for 10 minutes.

  2. After 10 minutes, add the cabbage, peppers, onion, red peppers, salt, mustard, turmeric, mustard seed, and celery salt.

  3. Cook all together for another 20 minutes.

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 + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 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 + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Onion + mustardtop 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

Corn
Forms the bulk of the relish and supplies sweetness and tender texture.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the relish and sharpens its flavor.
Granulated sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness.
Cabbage
Adds crunch and body to the relish as it cooks.
Dry mustard
Contributes sharp, pungent flavor that complements the vinegar.

The step that matters

Cook all together for another 20 minutes. Once the vegetables are added, the mixture must simmer long enough for the vinegar and sugar to blend with the vegetables and for the chopped vegetables to soften. Too short a simmer leaves them raw and the flavors separate.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, sugar, vinegar, cabbage, pepper, mustard, turmeric. 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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