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Salad

Chow-chow

A pickled relish made from green tomatoes, peppers, onions, sugar, spices, and cider vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Chop the green tomatoes and sprinkle the salt over them. Let them stand overnight.

  2. Drain off the water.

Layer and cover

  1. Mix the chopped peppers and onions with the tomatoes.

  2. In a preserving kettle, layer the mixture, sprinkling with some sugar and spices. Add more tomatoes, seasoning as before until all is used.

  3. Cover with best cider vinegar.

Cook slowly

  1. Set on the back of the range. Cover until it heats through.

  2. Let it simmer slowly for 2 hours, checking occasionally. If it seems likely to spoil, scald it up again.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the relish and release water when salted, softening the texture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the tomatoes and onions, helping preserve the relish and firm its texture.
Sugar
Balances the vinegar's sharpness and adds sweetness, also aiding preservation.
Cider vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the relish and gives it its tangy flavor.
Onions
Add savory bulk and aroma as they soften during the long simmer.
Black mustard seed
Adds pungent, sharp flavor that mellows during cooking.

The step that matters

Simmering slowly for 2 hours. Long, gentle heat softens the vegetables and blends the spices and vinegar. Too little heat or time leaves the relish raw and less stable, while a hard boil can scorch the sugar and break down the vegetables.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, mustard, cinnamon, pepper, onion, sugar, clove):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, mustard, cinnamon, pepper, onion, sugar, 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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