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Chow Chow

A pickled vegetable relish made from cabbage, cucumbers, green peppers, green tomatoes, onions, salt, sugar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chow Chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the onions and pour hot water over them, then let stand for 10 minutes.

  2. Chop the cabbage, cucumbers, green peppers, and green tomatoes finely.

  3. Sprinkle salt over the chopped vegetables and add the onions.

  4. Let the mixture stand overnight.

  5. Drain for 2 hours.

Pickle and season

  1. Pour weakened cold vinegar over the mixture and let stand for 24 hours.

  2. Pour off the vinegar.

  3. Add 1/2 pound of sugar for every gallon of the mixture.

  4. Add good vinegar.

  5. Season with mixed spice, cloves, mustard, and turmeric for color.

  6. Heat the vinegar until it boils and pour it over the mixture.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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

Cabbage
Provides bulk and a crisp texture that holds up through the pickling.
Green tomatoes
Add tartness and body, and their pectin helps the relish thicken.
Cucumbers
Contribute crunch and moisture that the salt draws out during standing.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the relish its tang.

The step that matters

Salting and draining the vegetables. Salt draws water out of the chopped vegetables by osmosis. Draining well before adding vinegar and sugar keeps the relish crisp and stops it from turning watery.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, cucumber, pepper, tomato, sugar, vinegar, 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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