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A pickled relish of cucumbers, peppers, beans, and vegetables in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lima beans and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 156 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut and salt the cucumbers and peppers.

Cook the vegetables

  1. Boil the vegetables separately until soft.

Combine and finish

  1. Mix the mustard with a little vinegar.

  2. Combine all the vegetables and mustard mixture.

  3. Bring to a boil.

  4. Add salt to taste.

  5. Store in airtight jars.

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. Lima beans + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together156 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  3. Beans + corntop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Lima beans + corntop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together222 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Mustard + beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 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

Cucumbers
Provide the main bulk and crisp texture that softens during boiling and pickling.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the relish its sharp, tangy flavor.
Mustard seed
Contributes pungent, sharp flavor that infuses the vegetables during cooking.
White sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard with sweetness.

The step that matters

Boil the vegetables separately until soft. Cooking each vegetable on its own lets you control tenderness, since vegetables soften at different rates. Overcooking one batch turns it mushy while others stay firm.

Swap the lima beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cucumber, mustard, beans, cider, vinegar, corn):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Lentilsfits about as well
  4. Lima beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cucumber, mustard, beans, cider, vinegar, corn. 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.

More chow-chow recipes

Tomato 9Relish 8Mustard 6Virginia 5Pickle 4 See all 29 →

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