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Chow Chow

A pickled vegetable relish made with cabbage, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, onions, salt, sugar, vinegar, mace, cloves, mustard, and turmeric.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chow Chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the onions.

  2. Pour hot water over the onions.

  3. Let stand for 10 minutes.

  4. Chop the cabbage, cucumbers, green peppers, and green tomatoes finely.

  5. Sprinkle coarse sea salt over the chopped ingredients.

  6. Add the onions.

  7. Let stand overnight.

Drain and pickle

  1. Drain the mixture for 2 hours.

  2. Pour weak cold vinegar over the mixture.

  3. Let stand for 24 hours.

  4. Pour off the vinegar.

Season and finish

  1. Add ½ pound of sugar for every gallon of the mixture.

  2. Add good vinegar.

  3. Season with mace, cloves, mustard, and turmeric for color.

  4. Heat the vinegar until it boils.

  5. Pour it over the mixture.

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

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

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

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

  3. Cabbage + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 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

Cabbage
Provides the bulk and a firm, crisp texture in the finished relish.
Cucumbers
Adds crunch and fresh body to the chopped mixture.
Green tomatoes
Contributes tartness and body to the relish.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the relish its tang.

The step that matters

Pour off the vinegar after the 24-hour stand. Salt and the initial vinegar draw water out of the vegetables. Pouring off the liquid before adding sugar and fresh boiling vinegar keeps the pickle from becoming watery and diluted.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, cucumber, pepper, tomato, onion, sugar, 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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Relish 49Pickle 25Pickles 16Tomato 9Cucumber 4Salad 3 See all 120 →

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