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Pepper Relish

A pickled relish made from green tomatoes, onions, peppers, celery, cabbage, sugar, mustard seed, salt, and vinegar.

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 ↓

Pepper Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Finely chop the green tomatoes, onions, red peppers, green peppers, celery, and cabbage.

  2. Combine all the chopped ingredients in a large bowl.

Make the relish

  1. Add the sugar, mustard seed, salt, and vinegar to the mixture.

  2. Mix well and pack into sterilized jars.

Seal and process

  1. Seal the jars and process them for preservation.

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

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

  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 + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 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

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk and fresh, tart body of the relish.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the relish its tang and helps preserve it.
Sugar
Balances the acidity with sweetness and adds to the preserving effect.
Mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavour to the relish.
Onions
Add savoury depth and aroma as they soften in the mixture.

The step that matters

Seal and process the jars. Vinegar and sugar alone do not make the relish safe for storage. Proper sealing and processing heat destroys microbes and creates a vacuum that keeps air and spoilage organisms out.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, celery, cabbage, 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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