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Another Chow Chow

A pickled cabbage relish with mustard seeds, peppers, cucumbers, onions, celery, and spices, preserved in vinegar and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Another Chow Chow

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the chopped cabbage, mustard seeds, red pepper, cucumbers, onions, ground allspice, pepper, cloves, ginger, horseradish, and chopped celery in a large jar.

  2. Boil enough vinegar to cover the mixture, adding 2 ounces of sugar for every quart of vinegar.

  3. Pour the boiling vinegar over the mixture in the jar and seal it tightly.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Mustard + cucumbertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 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

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the relish and gives it a crisp, crunchy texture.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the relish its sharp flavor.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Mustard seed
Adds pungent, sharp heat and a characteristic flavor.
Cucumbers
Add crunch and a fresh, mild body to the mixture.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling vinegar over the mixture and seal it tightly. The vinegar must be boiling and the jar sealed so the hot acid penetrates and preserves the vegetables; cooling or a loose seal can let spoilage start.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, mustard, pepper, cucumber, allspice, clove, ginger):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, mustard, pepper, cucumber, allspice, clove, ginger. 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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