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Chow-chow

A pickled relish of tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the green tomatoes, ripe tomatoes, cabbage, green peppers, and red peppers.

  2. Sprinkle with 1 cup coarse sea salt and let stand overnight.

Cook

  1. The next day, strain the mixture and add 3 lbs. sugar and grated horseradish.

  2. Cover with vinegar and bring to a boil.

  3. Add black pepper, ground mustard, mustard seed, ground cloves, mace, celery seed, chopped celery, turmeric, and boiled lima beans.

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. Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 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. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 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

Green tomatoes
Provide bulk and a tart, firm body to the relish.
Cabbage
Adds crunch and bulk that holds texture during long simmering.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture alongside the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the chow chow.
Lima beans
Add body and a mild, starchy texture to the mixture.
Horseradish
Adds sharp, pungent heat that mellows during cooking.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Radishfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, sugar, horseradish, 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.

More chow chow recipes

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

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