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Chow Chow

A pickled relish of green tomatoes, onions, peppers, and spices in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,491 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Chow Chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the green tomatoes, onions, and green peppers.

  2. Boil the chopped vegetables with 2 quarts of vinegar.

  3. Strain the mixture and discard the vinegar.

Make the pickle and cool

  1. In a separate bowl, combine 3 quarts of scalding hot cider vinegar with the chopped pickled limes, mixed mustard, sugar, salt, cloves, cinnamon, and allspice.

  2. Pour the hot mixture over the tomatoes.

  3. Let it cool.

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. Pepper + limetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + cidertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Lime + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together392 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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

Green tomatoes
Form the bulk of the pickle and absorb the spiced vinegar as the relish softens.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp, tangy flavor.
Pickled limes
Add a sour, salty citrus note that deepens the pickle's tang.
Mixed mustard
Adds pungency and sharp flavor that carries through the vinegar.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.

The step that matters

Pour the hot mixture over the tomatoes. The vinegar mixture must be scalding hot when poured so it penetrates the chopped vegetables and begins to pickle them. Cooler liquid would soak in less and leave the vegetables less preserved and less seasoned.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, vinegar, cider, lime, mustard, sugar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, vinegar, cider, lime, mustard, sugar. 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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