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Chow Chow

A pickled tomato relish made with green tomatoes, onions, peppers, celery, horseradish, spices, vinegar, sugar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Chow Chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Chop the green tomatoes.

  2. Cover them with 1 cup of coarse sea salt and let stand overnight.

  3. Drain off all the liquid in the morning.

Make the chow chow

  1. Add the chopped onions, green peppers, celery, horseradish, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

  2. Scald 2 quarts of vinegar with 1 pint of sugar and pour the scalded vinegar over the mixture.

  3. Put the mixture on the fire and boil for 15 minutes, stirring constantly.

  4. Simmer until the tomatoes are soft and thick.

Jar and store

  1. Turn the mixture into jars and cover the jars tightly.

  2. Store in a dry, cool place.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Form the bulk of the relish and soften into a thick texture during simmering.
Coarse sea salt
Draws liquid out of the tomatoes overnight, firming them and reducing watery relish.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the relish and gives it its sharp flavor.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Onions
Add savory body and aroma as they cook down into the relish.
Green peppers
Contribute bulk, mild bitterness and fresh vegetable flavor.

The step that matters

Simmering until thick. Simmering must continue until the tomatoes soften and the liquid reduces, since the relish thickens as water evaporates. Stopping early leaves a thin, watery product that may spoil sooner in storage.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, celery, horseradish, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, celery, horseradish, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg. 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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