Skip to main content
Main

Tomato Chow-chow

A pickled relish of tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and spices preserved in vinegar and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Margaret Brown · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tomato Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Cut 50 cucumbers, 50 green tomatoes, and 2 dozen white onions into slices and leave overnight.

  2. Sprinkle the sliced vegetables with salt; in the morning place them in a colander and drain them dry.

Cook the relish

  1. Combine 1 pint vinegar, 1/2 pound brown sugar, 1 teaspoon tamarack, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 1 tablespoon allspice, 1 tablespoon cloves, and 1/2 dozen mace leaves in a pot.

  2. Add the drained vegetables to the pot and bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. After boiling, remove the pot contents and transfer them to a jar, sealing it tightly.

Prepare the mango seeds

  1. Take a mango, cut it, remove all seeds, and place them in salt and water for 5 days.

  2. After 5 days, let the seeds stay 1 day and night in clear water, then drain them.

  3. Stuff the drained seeds with chopped hard cabbage, horseradish, mustard seed, garlic, and a few cloves; tie the opening to keep the stuffing inside.

Pickle the seeds

  1. Boil enough vinegar to cover the stuffed seeds, adding cloves and allspice to the vinegar.

  2. Pour the vinegar over the stuffed seeds in jars.

  3. Continue boiling the vinegar, pouring it over and off the mangoes for three days.

  4. Seal the jars for use.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

136Calories
3 gProtein
1 gFat
32 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot 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 Margaret Brown. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 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
Form the bulk of the relish; salting and draining removes water so the pieces stay firmer.
White onions
Add sharp, savory aroma that mellows as the relish cooks.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the relish and sharpens its flavour.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Drain the salted vegetables dry. Salt draws water out of the sliced vegetables. If they are not drained well, the extra water dilutes the vinegar brine, weakening its preserving acidity and making the relish watery.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, pepper, allspice, tomato, onion, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes