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Chow-chow

A pickled vegetable relish of green tomatoes, cabbage, onions, cucumbers, spices, vinegar, and brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 the vegetables

  1. Chop the green tomatoes, cabbages, onions, and cucumbers into small pieces.

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

  3. Drain and press out the liquid.

  4. Cover with equal parts vinegar and water for two days.

  5. Drain and press off the liquid again.

Make the pickle

  1. Add grated horseradish, sweet oil, small onions, mustard seed, celery seed, mustard, black pepper, cinnamon, and turmeric.

  2. Boil the vinegar with brown sugar.

  3. Pour the hot mixture over the vegetables.

  4. Drain off the liquid.

  5. Boil again the next day, repeating for a total of three boilings.

  6. Mix well.

  7. Boil all together for twenty minutes.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cucumber + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 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 the bulk of the chow-chow and release moisture that is drawn out by salting.
Cabbage
Adds crisp texture and body that holds up through repeated boiling.
Onions
Contribute sharp aromatic flavor that mellows during long cooking.
Cucumbers
Add crunch and fresh bulk to the mixed vegetables.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the vegetables and sharpens the flavor.

The step that matters

Drain and press out the liquid after salting. Salt draws large amounts of water out of the vegetables. If too much liquid remains, the pickle becomes watery and dilutes the vinegar, so pressing thoroughly keeps the texture firm and the flavor concentrated.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, onion, cucumber, horseradish, mustard, celery, pepper):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, onion, cucumber, horseradish, mustard, celery, pepper. 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

Tomato 9Relish 8Mustard 6Virginia 5Pickle 4 See all 29 →

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