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Chow Chow

A pickled vegetable relish of green tomatoes, celery, peppers, onions, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Chow Chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the green tomatoes, celery, green peppers, and onions finely.

  2. Sprinkle 1 pint of coarse sea salt over the chopped vegetables and let them stand overnight.

  3. Drain off the brine.

Cook and season

  1. Boil the mixture in enough vinegar to cover for 1 hour.

  2. Drain off the vinegar.

  3. Add 2 pounds of brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon, 1 tablespoon of allspice, ¼ teaspoon of ground cloves, ¼ teaspoon of black pepper, and ¼ teacup of ground mustard.

  4. Add 1 pint of grated horseradish and enough vinegar to mix.

  5. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Pack

  1. Pour it over the vegetables, then cover 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the relish and hold their shape after salting and boiling.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables, firming them and helping preserve the mixture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar and salt.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the mixture and sharpens its flavour.
Grated horseradish
Adds pungent heat that mellows during cooking.

The step that matters

Draining off the brine after salting. Salt pulls water out of the vegetables by osmosis. Draining it off removes excess liquid, so the relish stays firm and does not become watery or overly salty once cooked with the vinegar.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, celery, pepper, sugar, cinnamon, allspice, 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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