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Chow-chow, with Mustard Paste

A pickled cucumber relish with mustard paste, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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, with Mustard Paste

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Combine large cucumbers, small cucumbers, onions, green tomatoes, green peppers, cauliflower, and celery in a bowl.

  2. Soak the vegetables in salt brine overnight.

Cook the relish

  1. In the morning, drain the vegetables and mix them with mustard paste.

  2. Cook the mixture slightly.

  3. In a pot, boil the cider vinegar with yellow mustard, mustard seed, white sugar, turmeric, and celery seed for 5 minutes.

  4. Add the vegetables to the pot and cook until tender, about 1 hour or longer.

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. Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Cauliflower + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together488 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

Cider vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the relish its tang and helps preserve it.
White sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Mustard seed
Adds a pungent, sharp flavour that defines the relish.
Cucumbers
Brining draws out water so they keep some firmness before the long cook.
Cauliflower
Holds its shape as a firm, chunky vegetable base that softens during cooking.
Turmeric
Gives the relish its bright yellow colour.

The step that matters

Cooking the vegetables in the vinegar until tender. Vegetables cooked in hot, acidic vinegar soften gradually. Stopping too early leaves them raw and crisp, while cooking too long turns them mushy and dulls their texture.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, tomato, pepper, cauliflower, celery, 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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