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Chow-chow

A pickled vegetable relish made with tomatoes, cabbage, onions, peppers, mustard, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the green tomatoes, cabbage, onions, green peppers, and red peppers together.

  2. Add the coarse sea salt and let it strain overnight.

  3. The next morning, press out the water.

Make the relish

  1. Add the white mustard, celery seed, and brown sugar.

  2. Place the mixture in a pot with the vinegar and the cinnamon and allspice tied in a cloth.

  3. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat.

Pack the jars

  1. Pack into jars, layering with turmeric.

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. Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the relish and a tart, fresh vegetable base.
Cabbage
Adds crisp texture and body that holds up after pickling.
Onions
Contribute savory aroma and bulk to the relish.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickled vegetables.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables, firming them and concentrating flavor.
Brown sugar
Balances the vinegar's sharpness with sweetness and a molasses note.

The step that matters

Press out the water the next morning. Salt draws liquid out of the vegetables overnight. Pressing out that water removes excess liquid, so the relish stays thick and crisp rather than watery and diluted by the vinegar.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, onion, pepper, horseradish, celery, mustard, sugar):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, onion, pepper, horseradish, celery, 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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