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Chow Chow

A pickled relish of green tomatoes, onions, peppers, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chow Chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

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

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and let stand overnight.

Cook and pack

  1. In the morning, drain the mixture and cover with cold cider vinegar.

  2. Cook slowly for 1 hour, then drain again and pack into jars.

Add the seasoning

  1. In a separate bowl, mix brown sugar, mustard, cinnamon, black pepper, and horseradish.

  2. Add enough vinegar to cover the mixture.

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

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

  2. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 tart flavor that forms the body of the relish.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables, firming them and concentrating their flavor.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the mixture and gives it a sharp, tangy bite.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and horseradish.
Mustard
Adds pungent flavor and a little sharpness that complements the vinegar.
Horseradish
Contributes a sharp, pungent heat that lingers after the other flavors.

The step that matters

Drain after the overnight salting. Salt pulls moisture out of the vegetables; draining off that liquid keeps the chow chow from becoming watery and lets the vinegar and sugar flavor the pieces rather than dilute them.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, cider, vinegar, sugar, mustard, cinnamon. 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

Relish 49Pickle 25Pickles 16Tomato 9Cucumber 4Salad 3 See all 120 →

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