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Chow-chow

A pickled vegetable relish made with pickles, cauliflower, beans, onions, peppers, vinegar, mustard, spices, and curry powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 687 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the pickles, cauliflower, beans, and peppers finely, leaving the onions whole.

  2. Salt the mixture well and let it sit overnight.

  3. Drain the mixture the next morning and place it in a large jar.

Make the dressing

  1. Wet the ground mustard with cold water and mix it with the vinegar.

  2. Place cloves, whole black peppercorns, and mustard seeds in a spice bag.

  3. Boil the vinegar and spice bag together.

  4. Pour the hot vinegar and spice mixture over the pickled vegetables.

  5. Add the curry powder.

Cool and seal

  1. Let the mixture cool.

  2. Cover the mixture with a cloth containing mustard seeds.

  3. Seal the jar.

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. Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Cauliflower + beanstop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Beans + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  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

Cauliflower
Forms the bulk of the relish and holds a firm, crisp texture after pickling.
Pickles
Adds sour, salty flavor and acidity to the relish.
Small onions
Contribute sharpness and a mild crunch that holds up in the vinegar.
Ground mustard
Provides pungent heat and helps thicken and emulsify the vinegar dressing.
Best pickling vinegar
Acts as the preserving liquid, providing acidity that keeps the vegetables tangy and stable.
Mustard seeds
Add a sharp, pungent aroma and a slight bite when steeped in the hot vinegar.

The step that matters

Salting overnight and draining. Salt draws water out of the vegetables by osmosis, so they stay crisp rather than soggy. Draining well removes that excess liquid before the hot vinegar is added, keeping the relish firm and the brine from being diluted.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, beans, pepper, vinegar, mustard, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, beans, pepper, vinegar, mustard, clove. 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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