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Chow Chow

A pickled vegetable mixture of onions, cucumbers, green beans, cauliflower, and green peppers, seasoned with cider vinegar, mustard, flour, and turmeric.

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. Soak the onions, cucumbers, green beans, cauliflower, and sliced green peppers in brine for 24 hours.

  2. Bring the brine to a boil with the soaked vegetables.

Make the dressing

  1. In a separate pot, combine the cider vinegar, dry mustard, flour, and turmeric. Boil the mixture until well cooked.

  2. Drain the pickles and pour the cooked mixture over them.

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

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

  4. Green beans + cauliflowertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together75 recipes

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

  5. Cucumber + green beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together95 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

Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.
Dry mustard
Adds pungent flavor and sharpness to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the cooked vinegar mixture so it coats the vegetables.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its yellow color and a mild, earthy aroma.

The step that matters

Boil the vinegar mixture until well cooked. Flour thickens only when it is fully heated, and undercooked flour leaves a raw, pasty taste. Cooking the mixture thoroughly makes the sauce smooth and evenly thick before it is poured over the vegetables.

Swap the onion

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

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

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