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Chow Chow

A pickled relish of green tomatoes, cabbage, onions, peppers, mustard seeds, celery seed, vinegar, brown sugar, English mustard, and olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chow Chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the onions, tomatoes, cabbage, and peppers.

  2. Sprinkle with salt and let sit overnight.

Soak and dress

  1. In the morning, drain and soak in thin vinegar for 1–2 days.

  2. Drain again and mix in the spices.

  3. Boil vinegar and brown sugar together, then pour over the ingredients hot.

  4. Repeat this process for three mornings.

  5. On the third morning, mix in the English mustard and olive oil.

Store

  1. Store in 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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharp vinegar.
Vinegar
Acts as the pickling liquid that preserves and sharpens the relish.
White mustard seed
Supplies pungent flavor that mellows during the pickling process.
Green tomatoes
Provide bulk and a tart, firm texture for the relish.
Cabbage
Adds crunch and bulk that holds up through repeated soaking.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling vinegar and sugar over the ingredients hot. Hot brine penetrates the chopped vegetables and draws out moisture while dissolving the sugar, helping the relish pickle evenly. Pouring it cold or lukewarm would leave the vegetables less infused and more prone to spoiling.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, onion, pepper, mustard, celery, vinegar, sugar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, onion, pepper, mustard, celery, vinegar, sugar. 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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