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Chow-chow

A pickled vegetable mixture of cauliflower, cucumbers, string beans, celery, green peppers, onions, and green tomatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 584 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Combine the cauliflower, cucumbers, string beans, celery, green peppers, onions, and green tomatoes in a large bowl. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

  2. Let stand for 24 hours, then drain.

Make the pickle

  1. In a kettle, combine the vinegar, mustard seed, French mustard, allspice, cloves, ground pepper, turmeric, and cinnamon. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  2. Add the drained vegetables. Scald the vegetables until they turn yellow and are slightly tender.

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. Cauliflower + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  3. Cauliflower + beanstop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  5. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cauliflower
Adds firm, crisp bulk that holds its shape through the pickling.
Cucumbers
Provide crunch and fresh body that softens only slightly during scalding.
Vinegar
Acidity preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables during the long stand, firming them and concentrating flavour.
Mustard seed
Adds pungent, sharp flavour that defines the pickle's character.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its yellow colour and an earthy aroma.

The step that matters

Scalding the vegetables in the hot vinegar. Scalding only until the vegetables turn yellow and slightly tender keeps them crisp. Overcooking breaks down their cell structure, leaving them soft and mushy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, cucumber, beans, celery, pepper, tomato, vinegar):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, cucumber, beans, celery, pepper, tomato, vinegar. 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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