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Chow Chow

A pickled vegetable relish of cabbage, cauliflower, onions, green tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, and green peppers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and cucumber 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. Chop the cabbage, cauliflower, onions, green tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, and green peppers fine.

  2. Boil the chopped vegetables in just enough water to cover until moderately soft, then strain.

Make the dressing and combine

  1. In a pot, combine the vinegar, mustard, turmeric, white sugar, and coarse sea salt.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil and pour it over the strained vegetables.

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

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

  2. Cabbage + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 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

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the pickle and gives it a crisp, sturdy texture.
Cauliflower
Adds bulk and firm pieces that hold their shape in the pickle.
Onions
Contribute sharpness and aroma that mellow during cooking.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetables and sharpens the flavor.
Mustard
Adds pungent flavor and heat that deepens as the relish sits.
White sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard with sweetness.

The step that matters

Boiling the vegetables in just enough water. Using only enough water to cover keeps the vegetables from becoming waterlogged and diluting the vinegar dressing. Stopping at moderate softness keeps them from turning mushy once the hot dressing is poured over them.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

More chow chow recipes

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

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