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Chow Chow. No. 1. Mrs. M. E. Kendall.

A pickled relish of green tomatoes, peppers, onions, cabbage, mustard seed, sugar, salt, pepper, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chow Chow. No. 1. Mrs. M. E. Kendall.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the green tomatoes, green peppers, and large onions finely.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and let stand overnight.

  3. Drain the mixture and add the chopped cabbage.

Cook and jar

  1. Mix in the white mustard seed, sugar, salt, and pepper to taste.

  2. Boil in vinegar until tender.

  3. Put into glass jars and 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. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + cabbagetop 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

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the chow chow and a tart, savoury base once salted and cooked.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the chopped vegetables overnight, firming them and concentrating flavour.
Large onions
Add sharp, savoury flavour that mellows during long cooking.
White mustard seed
Contributes a pungent, sharp flavour that defines the relish.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that tenderises the vegetables and preserves the relish.

The step that matters

Salting overnight and draining. Salt draws moisture out of the chopped vegetables through osmosis. Draining off that liquid before adding cabbage and vinegar keeps the relish from becoming watery and helps it stay crisp-tender rather than soggy.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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

More chow chow recipes

Relish 49Pickle 25Pickles 16Tomato 9Cucumber 4Salad 3 See all 120 →

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