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Chow-chow

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the tomatoes, onions, and green peppers finely.

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

  3. Drain off the brine.

Cook and pack

  1. Cover with good vinegar.

  2. Cook for 1 hour.

  3. Drain and pack into a jar.

  4. Boil vinegar with mustard, sugar, and spices.

  5. Pour the boiled vinegar 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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 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

Green tomatoes
Form the bulk of the relish and provide its tart, fresh-vegetable body.
Onions
Add savory depth and aroma as they soften during cooking.
Green peppers
Contribute crisp-cooked texture and a mildly bitter, grassy flavor.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables, firming them and concentrating flavor before cooking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the mixture and gives it its sharp, tangy character.

The step that matters

Drain off the brine. Salt draws water out of the chopped vegetables; removing that liquid keeps the relish from becoming watery and diluting the vinegar.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, 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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