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Salad

Chow-chow

A pickled relish made from green tomatoes, cabbage, onions, peppers, and spices, left to mature for ten days.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,279 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

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

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

  3. Let stand for 12 to 24 hours.

  4. Drain well through a sieve.

Make the relish

  1. Cover with cider vinegar.

  2. Heat to boiling point.

  3. When hot, add 4 tablespoons of mixed mustard.

  4. Let cool.

  5. Add 2 tablespoons of turmeric.

  6. Add 2 teaspoons of curry powder.

  7. Add 2 cups of sweet oil.

  8. Add 2 cups of white mustard seed.

  9. Add 2 cups of sugar.

  10. Add 2 cups of horseradish.

  11. Mix thoroughly.

Bottle and rest

  1. Bottle.

  2. Let sit for 10 days before using.

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. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 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 relish and release moisture that the salt draws out.
Cabbage
Adds crunch and bulk that holds up to long resting in brine and vinegar.
White onions
Add savory depth and sharpness that mellows during the resting period.
Cider vinegar
Acidity that preserves the relish and gives it its tang.
Sugar
Balances the acidity and vinegar with sweetness.
White mustard seed
Adds pungent flavour and a textured bite to the relish.

The step that matters

Drain well after salting. Salt draws water out of the vegetables. If they are not drained thoroughly, excess liquid dilutes the vinegar and makes the relish watery and less stable in the jar.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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