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Piccalilli or Chow-chow

A relish of green tomatoes, onions, celery, spices, and vinegar, prepared by slow cooking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Piccalilli or Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop or slice the tomatoes and sprinkle the salt over them, then let stand overnight.

  2. Drain off the water from the tomatoes.

  3. Chop the onion and celery.

Cook

  1. Place the tomatoes, onion, and celery in a porcelain-lined kettle and sprinkle with brown sugar.

  2. Tie the spices in a bag, then add the spice bag and vinegar to the kettle.

  3. Cook slowly for the entire day.

  4. Put the mixture in jars or an earthen crock.

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

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

  4. Cinnamon + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cinnamon + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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 give it its fresh, tart body.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the tomatoes, firming them and concentrating their flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that gives piccalilli its sharp tang and helps preserve it.
Onions
Add savory depth and a mild sharpness to the mixture.

The step that matters

Drain the salted tomatoes. Salt draws out water through osmosis; if the tomatoes are not drained well, excess liquid dilutes the vinegar and sugar, leading to a watery, less concentrated relish.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cinnamon, sugar, onion, celery, 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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