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Handy Chow Chow

A preserved vegetable relish made from finely chopped cabbage, green peppers, and green tomatoes with mustard, salt, vinegar, and optional spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Handy Chow Chow

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop the cabbage, green peppers, and green tomatoes very finely.

  2. Add the mustard, coarse sea salt, and enough vinegar to wet the mixture. If desired, add a little cloves and allspice.

  3. Mix well and store in a jar. It will keep for a long time.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  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

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the relish and provides a crisp, crunchy texture.
Green tomatoes
Add tartness and body, helping the relish hold together as a chopped mixture.
Green peppers
Add a fresh, slightly bitter vegetal flavor and crunch.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that balances the vinegar.

The step that matters

Add vinegar only enough to wet the mixture. Vinegar draws moisture out of the chopped vegetables and acts as the preservative. Too little leaves the relish dry and more prone to spoilage, while too much makes it soupy and sharp. Adding it gradually lets you judge the right moisture level.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, pepper, tomato, mustard, vinegar, allspice):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, tomato, mustard, vinegar, allspice. 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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