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Ripe Tomato Chow-chow

A pickled vegetable relish made from tomatoes, cabbage, onions, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Ripe Tomato Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chow chow

  1. Combine ground tomatoes, cabbage, and onions in a large pot.

  2. Add vinegar and spices to taste.

  3. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Jar

  1. Seal in sterilized jars while hot.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

Ripe tomatoes
Supply the main body, moisture, and tangy base of the relish.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a slightly firm texture that holds up during cooking.
Onions
Contribute savory depth and aroma as they soften.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the mixture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Seal in sterilized jars while hot. Filling with hot product into sterilized jars helps form a vacuum seal and limits microbial spoilage. The vinegar's acidity does much of the preserving, so clean jars and a tight seal matter.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cabbage, vinegar, clove, pepper, cinnamon, sugar. 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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