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Chow-chow

A preserved tomato and pepper relish seasoned with spices and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 the vegetables

  1. Sprinkle salt over sliced tomatoes and let stand overnight.

  2. Drain off excess liquid and add chopped green peppers and onions.

  3. Mix in sugar, ground mustard, black mustard seed, cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon, mace, and black pepper.

Cook and store

  1. Layer tomatoes and spice mixture in a kettle, starting and ending with tomatoes.

  2. Cover with vinegar and cook slowly for 2 hours.

  3. Can in tight containers for long-term storage.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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, once salted and drained, give it a firm, chunky texture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws liquid out of the tomatoes overnight, firming them and concentrating their flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar and the mustard heat.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the relish and gives it its tangy character.
Onions
Add savory depth and bulk to the mixture as it cooks down.
Black mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent heat and aroma that deepens during slow cooking.

The step that matters

Drain off excess liquid after salting. Salting draws out water from the tomatoes. If the liquid is not drained well, the relish will cook watery and dilute its flavor and texture.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, onion, sugar, mustard, clove, cinnamon. 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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