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Salad

Chow— Chow

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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

  1. Combine chopped green tomatoes and salt in a bowl.

  2. Let stand overnight.

  3. In the morning, drain off the water.

Cook

  1. Add chopped onion, green peppers, spices, and sugar to the tomatoes.

  2. Cover with vinegar and cook for one hour.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 give it its fresh, tart base.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the tomatoes, firming their texture and reducing excess liquid.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the tomatoes and vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the relish its tang and helps preserve it.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aromatic flavor as it cooks down.

The step that matters

Drain off the water in the morning. Salt pulls moisture from the tomatoes overnight; if the liquid is not fully drained, the relish stays watery and dilutes its flavor and thickness.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, cinnamon, clove, allspice, mustard, ginger. 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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