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Chow-chow

A pickled vegetable relish made from cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and spices, preserved in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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. Remove defective and green outer leaves from the cabbage.

  2. Shave the cabbage to fill a 4-quart measure.

  3. Wipe the green tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers with a wet cloth.

  4. Slice the green tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers thin.

  5. Place the sliced vegetables in an earthen or wooden vessel.

  6. Sprinkle the vegetables with 1 pint of coarse sea salt.

  7. Let the mixture stand overnight.

  8. Drain the vegetables.

Cook and jar

  1. Place the drained vegetables in a preserving kettle.

  2. Add 1 pint of small red peppers and the spices: whole mace, peppercorns, mustard seed, powdered turmeric, whole cloves, celery seed, and grated horseradish.

  3. Pour in enough vinegar to cover the mixture.

  4. Boil gently for 30 minutes.

  5. Cool.

  6. Transfer to earthen or glass jars with tight covers.

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. 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. Turmeric + clovetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,876 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 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, giving it a crisp, crunchy texture.
Green tomatoes
Add firm body and a tart, sharp flavor that holds up to cooking.
Cucumbers
Contribute crunch and a mild, fresh flavor after salting and cooking.
Mustard seed
Adds a pungent, sharp heat that flavors the pickled vegetables.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the relish its tang.

The step that matters

Salting and draining the vegetables overnight. Salt draws water out of the cabbage, tomatoes, and cucumbers through osmosis. Draining well removes that liquid so the relish stays crisp and does not dilute the vinegar.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, tomato, cucumber, pepper, mustard, turmeric, 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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