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Chow Chow

A pickled relish made from green tomatoes, onions, cabbage, peppers, vinegar, spices, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Chow Chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Combine green tomatoes, onions, cabbage, and green peppers in a bowl.

  2. Sprinkle lightly with coarse sea salt and mix well.

  3. Place the mixture in a bag and suspend it to drain overnight.

Make the relish

  1. In a large pot, combine apple cider vinegar, allspice, crushed clove, celery seed, white mustard seeds, mace, and sugar.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil, then add the drained vegetable mixture.

  3. Boil for 5 minutes, then transfer to jars and seal tightly.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  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
Provide the bulk of the relish and a tart, fresh body once cooked.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften in the hot vinegar.
Cabbage
Adds crisp texture and bulk that holds shape through cooking.
Green peppers
Contribute mild, grassy flavor and a little crunch to the relish.
Apple cider vinegar
Provides acidity that flavors the relish and helps preserve it.
Sugar
Balances the sharp vinegar with sweetness and helps set the flavor.

The step that matters

Draining the vegetables overnight. Salting and draining pulls excess water out of the vegetables. If they stay wet, the relish becomes diluted and watery once it is boiled in vinegar.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cabbage, pepper, apple cider vinegar, allspice, clove, celery):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cabbage, pepper, apple cider vinegar, allspice, clove, celery. 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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