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A pickled vegetable mix of onions, cucumbers, string beans, cauliflower, peppers, mustard, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and cauliflower match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 584 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Peel the onions.

  2. Halve the cucumbers.

  3. String the beans.

  4. Cut the cauliflower into small pieces.

  5. Place all the vegetables in a wooden bowl.

  6. Sprinkle the vegetables generously with coarse sea salt.

  7. Wash the vegetables thoroughly.

  8. Drain the vegetables.

Make the pickle

  1. Put the vegetables into cold cider vinegar, except for the red peppers.

  2. Boil the mixture slowly for 20 minutes, stirring often.

Bottle and seal

  1. Melt wax in a dish.

  2. Fill bottles.

  3. Add the red peppers to the bottles for presentation.

  4. Cork the bottles.

  5. Dip the tops in wax.

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 + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Beans + cauliflowertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  5. Beans + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 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

Small white onions
Provide firm, crisp pieces that hold their texture through the cooking.
Small cucumbers
Add crunch and a briny, tart flavor after pickling in vinegar.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Ground mustard
Adds pungent, sharp flavor and color to the pickling liquid.
Mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, slightly bitter flavor and crunch to the pickle.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture slowly for 20 minutes, stirring often. Heating the vegetables in vinegar long enough softens them and lets the acid penetrate for preservation, while stirring prevents scorching on the bottom of the pot and keeps the heat even.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, beans, cauliflower, pepper, mustard, cider, 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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