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Salad

Old Virginia Chow-Chow

A pickled relish of green tomatoes, cabbage, onions, peppers, and spices, boiled and jarred.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 ↓

Old Virginia Chow-Chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

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

  2. Sprinkle with salt and let stand for 24 hours.

  3. Drain the mixture thoroughly.

Cook

  1. Add cider vinegar and brown sugar and boil together for 1 hour.

  2. Add ripe tomatoes, chopped celery, and horseradish and boil for an additional 15 minutes.

  3. Mix in cloves, mustard, white mustard seed, allspice, and ginger, and stir thoroughly.

Jar

  1. Put the mixture in jars.

  2. Seal the jars.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

  5. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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 chow-chow and release moisture that the salt draws out.
Cabbage
Adds crisp texture and body to the chopped vegetable mixture.
Cider vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the mixture and balances the sweetness.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and depth, and helps balance the vinegar's sharpness.
Horseradish
Adds pungent heat that gives the relish its sharp, sinus-clearing bite.
Celery
Adds crunch and a mild, savory vegetable flavor to the mixture.

The step that matters

Drain the salted mixture thoroughly. Salt draws water out of the chopped vegetables over 24 hours. Removing that liquid before cooking keeps the chow-chow from becoming watery and helps it hold a thicker, more spoonable texture.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cabbage, pepper, cider, vinegar, sugar, celery. 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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