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Chow-chow

A pickled relish of onions, cauliflower, pickles, peppers, tomatoes, beans, celery, cucumbers, and spices in vinegar and sugar.

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. Chop each vegetable separately and let them stand in salt water overnight, each vegetable alone.

  2. Drain the vegetables in the morning.

  3. Steam the beans, cauliflower, and celery until tender.

Make the dressing

  1. While steaming, combine all other ingredients in a pot and scald with 1½ pints of water and 1¼ pints of vinegar.

  2. Drain the mixture and add 4 pints of vinegar, 2 to 2½ lbs sugar, turmeric, sifted flour, and olive oil.

  3. Mix with a little of the vinegar, pouring in the oil slowly while stirring.

  4. Add the remaining vinegar and cook until it no longer tastes raw.

  5. Combine all ingredients and cook until it begins to boil.

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

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

  5. Tomato + celerytop 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

Sifted flour
Thickens the vinegar and oil mixture, giving the relish a smooth, body-rich texture.
Olive oil
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and softening the sharpness of the vinegar.
Sugar
Balances the sharp vinegar with sweetness and helps round out the pickle flavour.
Vinegar
Provides the acid that preserves the vegetables and gives the relish its tang.
Turmeric
Gives the relish its characteristic yellow colour and a warm, earthy aroma.
White mustard
Adds sharp pungency and heat that deepens the relish's flavour.

The step that matters

Pouring in the oil slowly while stirring. Oil and vinegar do not mix on their own. Adding the oil gradually while stirring, with a little vinegar first, helps it disperse into a smooth emulsion rather than separating into greasy pools.

Swap the onion

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

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

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