Skip to main content
Main

Piccalilli or Chow-chow

Piccalilli is a pickled relish of green tomatoes, onions, celery, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Piccalilli or Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop or slice the tomatoes.

  2. Sprinkle salt over the tomatoes and let them stand overnight.

  3. Drain off the water from the tomatoes in the morning.

  4. Chop the onions and celery.

Cook

  1. Place all ingredients in a porcelain-lined kettle.

  2. Sprinkle sugar over the ingredients.

  3. Tie the spices in a bag.

  4. Add the spice bag and vinegar to the kettle.

  5. Cook slowly all day.

  6. 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. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

  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

Green tomatoes
Form the bulk of the relish, and salting draws out water so the pickle stays thick.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the tomatoes, firming their texture before cooking.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the mixture and gives it its tangy flavor.
Onions
Add savory depth and bulk to the relish as they soften during slow cooking.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, vegetal flavor to the relish.

The step that matters

Draining the salted tomatoes. Salt draws water out of the tomatoes by osmosis. Draining off that liquid before cooking keeps the relish from becoming thin and watery.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipes