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Chow Chow

A pickled vegetable relish made with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, cauliflower, celery, onions, string beans, vinegar, spices, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and cauliflower match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 584 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Chow Chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Cut all vegetables into small pieces.

  2. Cover with salt and let stand for 24 hours, then drain.

Cook

  1. In a large pot, bring 1 gallon of vinegar to a boil.

  2. Add mustard seed, turmeric, allspice, black pepper, cloves, and salt.

  3. Add the drained vegetables and cook until soft.

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. Cucumber + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Tomato + cucumbertop 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

Vinegar
Provides the sour acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the relish its tang.
Salt
Draws water out of the vegetables during the long rest, firming them and seasoning the mix.
Mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavour that stands out against the sour vinegar.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its characteristic yellow colour and an earthy flavour.
Cauliflower
Forms the bulk of the vegetables and softens into tender pieces during cooking.

The step that matters

Draining after the salt rest. Salt pulls water out of the vegetables over 24 hours. Draining off that liquid and rinsing away excess salt keeps the pickle from tasting harsh and stops it from turning watery when cooked.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cucumber, pepper, cauliflower, celery, beans, vinegar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cucumber, pepper, cauliflower, celery, beans, vinegar. 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.

More chow chow recipes

Relish 49Pickle 25Pickles 16Tomato 9Cucumber 4Salad 3 See all 120 →

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