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Chow Chow

A pickled vegetable relish made with cabbage, cucumbers, green beans, green tomatoes, celery, onions, green peppers, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chow Chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cabbage, cucumbers, green beans, green tomatoes, celery, onions, and green peppers.

  2. Add the white mustard seed, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, black pepper, and grated horseradish. Season with coarse sea salt to taste.

Combine

  1. Pour 2 quarts of heated vinegar over the mixture and stir well.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cucumber + tomatotop 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

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the relish and holds its crunch during pickling.
Green tomatoes
Add tartness and body to the mixture.
White mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavor that deepens as the relish sits.
Vinegar
Acidity preserves the vegetables and gives the relish its tang.
Cucumbers
Contribute crisp texture and fresh, mild flavor.
Green beans
Add crisp texture and a vegetal bite.

The step that matters

Pour in the heated vinegar and stir well. The vinegar's acidity is what preserves the chopped vegetables, so it needs to be evenly distributed through the whole mixture. Unstirred pockets can stay under-acidified and spoil sooner.

Swap the green beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, cucumber, tomato, celery, onion, pepper, mustard):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Green beansthe original

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