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Pepper Relish

A preserved relish made from green tomatoes, red peppers, onions, spices, sugar, vinegar, and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pepper Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the green tomatoes and mix with 1 cup of coarse sea salt.

  2. Let the mixture sit overnight.

  3. In the morning, drain the tomatoes.

Cook

  1. Combine the drained tomatoes with red peppers, red onions, mixed spices, sugar, and vinegar.

  2. Cook the mixture slowly for 3 hours.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 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

Green tomatoes
Form the bulk of the relish, and salting draws out water so they soften and hold less liquid.
Red peppers
Add sweetness, body and colour to the relish as they cook down.
Red onions
Add savoury aroma and sweetness that mellows during long cooking.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and tomatoes.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the relish its tang and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture slowly for 3 hours. Long, gentle cooking lets the water evaporate and the vegetables soften and blend without scorching. Sugar caramelises and sticks to the pan if the heat is too high, which burns the bottom and gives a bitter flavour.

Swap the onion

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

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

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