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Chow-chow

A pickled vegetable relish made from green tomatoes, celery, cabbage, onions, and a sweet vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the green tomatoes, celery, cabbage, and onions together.

  2. Let the mixture stand in weak brine overnight.

  3. Drain the mixture in a colander.

Pack and pickle

  1. Pack the drained mixture lightly into jars or fruit cans.

  2. For each quart of vinegar, add 1 cup of sugar and spices to taste.

  3. Boil the vinegar mixture and pour it over the packed pickles until covered.

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

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

  2. Celery + cabbagetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

  3. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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 pickle and a tart, firm base that holds its shape.
Cabbage
Adds crunch and bulk, and holds its texture well in the vinegar.
Onions
Contribute pungent flavour that mellows during standing and pickling.
Celery
Adds a crisp, fresh vegetal crunch to the mixture.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.

The step that matters

Draining after the overnight brine. Vegetables that stay wet dilute the vinegar mixture poured over them, weakening its acidity and flavour and making the pickles less stable. Draining well before packing keeps the vinegar strong enough to preserve the pickles.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, cabbage, 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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