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Chow Chow

A pickled relish of cauliflower, onions, pickles, mustard, oil, vinegar, and red peppers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 687 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Chow Chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the cauliflower and pickles into small square pieces.

  2. Soak all the vegetables in strong salt water overnight.

  3. Rinse well and boil in vinegar until tender.

Make the mustard sauce and cook

  1. Mix the mustard and oil with enough vinegar to combine well.

  2. Stir the mustard mixture into the boiling vegetables.

  3. Just before removing from heat, add the red peppers.

Bottle

  1. Bottle the chow chow once prepared.

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. Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Cauliflower + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,113 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

Cauliflower
Provides the bulk and firm bite of the pickle mix once cooked until tender.
Black ground mustard
Supplies sharp, pungent flavour that mellows as the mixture cooks.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the vegetables and sharpens the overall flavour.
Small onions
Adds sweetness and savoury body that softens during boiling.
Table oil
Carries the mustard evenly through the mixture and adds richness.

The step that matters

Adding the mustard mixture to the boiling vegetables. Mustard flavour is volatile and mellows with heat, while raw mustard can taste harsh. Mixing it smoothly with oil and vinegar first prevents clumps and uneven pungency, so the sauce coats the vegetables evenly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, mustard, vinegar, 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

Relish 49Pickle 25Pickles 16Tomato 9Cucumber 4Salad 3 See all 120 →

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