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Chowchow Pickle

A pickled cucumber and pepper mixture seasoned with mace, cloves, sugar, mustard, horseradish, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson." · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Chowchow Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Slice three dozen large cucumbers, four large green peppers, half a peck of onions, the same amount of green tomatoes, and small red and green peppers.

  2. Add one pint of pickles and catsups.

  3. Sprinkle one pint of salt over the vegetables, and let them drain overnight.

Season and cook

  1. In the morning, add one ounce mace, one ounce of white pepper, the same amount of white mustard seed and turmeric, half an ounce of cloves, the same amount of celery seed, two pounds sugar, three tablespoonsful of table mustard, and a handful of sliced horseradish.

  2. Cover with vinegar, and boil all together for half an hour.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

87Calories
1 gProtein
1 gFat
21 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 9 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Cucumber1/2 cup sliced (52g)16
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot in our table0
Horseradishnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson.". 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. See the original page.

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. Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Horseradish + cucumbertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  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

Cucumbers
Form the bulk of the pickle and give it its crisp, bite-sized texture.
Salt
Draws water out of the vegetables overnight, firming them and helping them keep their crunch.
Sugar
Balances the sharp vinegar and mustard with sweetness.
Vinegar (in the method)
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its tang.
Table mustard
Adds sharpness and a pungent flavour that carries through the boiled pickle.

The step that matters

Draining the vegetables overnight with salt. Salt pulls water out of the cut vegetables through osmosis. If they are not drained well, the excess water dilutes the vinegar and leaves the pickle soft and watery rather than crisp.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mace, clove, sugar, horseradish, cucumber, pepper, mustard):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mace, clove, sugar, horseradish, cucumber, pepper, 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.

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