Skip to main content
Main

Chow-chow

A pickled tomato relish made with green tomatoes, vinegar, salt, sugar, onions, cucumbers, pepper, celery, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Salt and drain

  1. Chop the tomatoes, add the salt, and mix.

  2. Let stand overnight.

  3. Drain the tomatoes.

Mix and cook

  1. Add the chopped onions, cucumbers, pepper, and celery.

  2. Stir in the vinegar, sugar, and spices.

  3. Put the mixture in an enamel kettle.

  4. Cook until clear.

  5. Stir well with a wooden spoon.

Pack and seal

  1. Pack in hot, clean jars.

  2. Seal.

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. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  3. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Cucumber + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together501 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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 and release their water when salted.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the tomatoes so the relish stays firm rather than watery.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that sets the flavor and helps keep the relish stable in jars.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Onions
Contribute sharp aroma and savory flavor that deepens during cooking.
Cucumbers
Add crisp texture to the cooked relish.

The step that matters

Cook until clear. Cooking drives off excess water and softens the vegetables while the vinegar and sugar concentrate. Stopping too early leaves the relish watery, while overcooking turns the vegetables mushy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, cucumber, allspice, pepper. 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 Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipes