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Chow-chow

A pickled relish of cabbage, cauliflower, cucumbers, celery, peppers, onions, and green tomatoes in vinegar with mustard, cloves, and turmeric.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and cucumber 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

  1. Cut the cabbage, cauliflower, cucumbers, celery, peppers, onions, and green tomatoes into small pieces.

  2. Boil each vegetable separately until tender, then strain them.

Make the dressing

  1. In a kettle, combine the vinegar and spices, and bring to a boil.

Combine and serve

  1. Mix the boiled vegetables with the dressing and serve.

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. Cauliflower + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

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

  2. Cabbage + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  4. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 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 acidity that preserves the relish and gives it its sharp flavour.
Green tomatoes
Add bulk and a firm, tart body that holds up to long simmering.
Cabbage
Forms the main crisp, sturdy bulk of the relish.
Cauliflower
Adds firm pieces that soak up the dressing and keep their bite.
Mustard seed
Contributes pungent, sharp heat that deepens as it steeps in the vinegar.
Turmeric
Gives the relish its yellow colour and a mild, earthy aroma.

The step that matters

Boil each vegetable separately until tender. Vegetables with different densities cook at different rates, so boiling them separately prevents mushy pieces or raw, crunchy ones. Straining well also removes excess water that would dilute the vinegar dressing and weaken its preserving effect.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, cauliflower, cucumber, celery, pepper, tomato, 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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