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Tomato Chow-chow

A preserved tomato relish made with tomatoes, onions, sugar, mustard seed, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Tomato Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice tomatoes (not too thin) and chop onions.

  2. Sprinkle tomatoes and onions thoroughly with salt and let stand overnight with a weight on top.

Cook and seal

  1. Drain the mixture and boil for 15 minutes in water and vinegar.

  2. Drain again and add finely chopped red pepper, brown sugar, black pepper, cloves, cinnamon, mustard seed, and vinegar.

  3. Allow to boil for 10 minutes and seal in 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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

Tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the relish and release moisture that the salt draws out.
Onions
Add pungent flavor and body that softens during the long simmer.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
White mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent bite as the seeds soften in the hot vinegar.
Vinegar
Acts as the main liquid and preserving agent, adding acidity.
Red peppers
Add sweetness, color, and a mild vegetal bite to the chopped mix.

The step that matters

Salting and draining the tomatoes and onions overnight. Salt draws water out of the vegetables by osmosis. Draining that liquid before cooking keeps the relish thick instead of watery and helps it hold its texture through the boil.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sugar, mustard, cinnamon, clove, pepper, vinegar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, mustard, cinnamon, clove, pepper, 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.

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