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Salad

Chow Chow

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and cucumber are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chow Chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Grind the green tomatoes, cabbage, cucumbers, onions, green peppers, and red peppers together using a meat grinder.

  2. Let the mixture stand in salt water overnight.

Cook and jar

  1. Add the mixture to a gallon of boiling hot vinegar.

  2. Season with mace, cloves, spice, mustard seed, and celery seed.

  3. Cook slowly for 10 to 15 minutes.

  4. Add turmeric to color the mixture.

  5. Place the chow chow in glass 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. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 recipes

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

  5. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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 flavor base.
Cabbage
Adds crisp texture and body that holds up during cooking.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the relish and gives it its sharp tang.
Mustard seed
Contributes pungent, sharp flavor that stands up to the vinegar.
Turmeric
Gives the relish its yellow color and a mild, earthy aroma.

The step that matters

Cook slowly for 10 to 15 minutes. Gentle cooking softens the chopped vegetables and lets the vinegar and spices blend without scorching. Overheating can make the vegetables mushy or burn the spices, while too little cooking leaves the mixture raw-tasting.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cabbage, cucumber, onion, pepper, vinegar, clove):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cabbage, cucumber, onion, pepper, vinegar, clove. 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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