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Chow-chow

A pickled relish of tomatoes, onions, and green peppers seasoned with spices and vinegar.

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

Salt the vegetables

  1. Combine chopped tomatoes, onions, and green peppers in a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt. Let stand overnight.

  2. Drain off the brine.

Cook and pack

  1. Cover with vinegar. Cook slowly for 1 hour.

  2. Drain and pack into a jar.

Make the spice mixture and seal

  1. In a separate bowl, mix sugar, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, black pepper, ground mustard, and horseradish. Add enough vinegar to achieve a thin consistency.

  2. Pour the hot mixture over the packed vegetables in the jar. Seal 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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Form the bulk of the pickle and soften into a chunky, tender texture as they cook.
Onions
Add savoury depth and body to the chopped vegetable base.
Green peppers
Contribute crisp-tender texture and a fresh, vegetal bite.
Sugar
Balances the sharp vinegar and adds sweetness while helping preserve the pickle.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens flavour and keeps the pickle preserved.
Horseradish
Adds pungent heat that mellows during cooking and storage.

The step that matters

Draining the salted vegetables. Salt draws water out of the vegetables by osmosis. Draining off the brine thoroughly before cooking keeps the pickle from becoming watery and helps it stay firm and well preserved.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, vinegar, 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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