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Chow-chow

A pickled relish made from green and ripe tomatoes, onions, cabbage, and spices, boiled with vinegar.

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

  1. Chop and mix the green tomatoes, ripe tomatoes, onions, cabbage, and red pepper.

  2. Sprinkle salt over the mixture and let it stand for 24 hours.

  3. Drain the mixture and place it in a kettle.

Cook

  1. Add grated horseradish, brown sugar, black pepper, mustard, and celery seed.

  2. Cover with vinegar and boil until clear.

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. Mustard + celerytop 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 bulk and tartness that give the relish its body.
Onions
Add savory sharpness and aroma that deepen as the relish cooks.
Cabbage
Adds crisp texture and holds its shape through the long simmer.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar and draws out liquid as it cooks.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables, firming them and concentrating their flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the relish and sharpens its flavor.

The step that matters

Draining after the salt rest. The vegetables release a large amount of liquid during the 24-hour salting. Draining thoroughly removes that excess water so the relish does not become watery and the vinegar stays properly balanced.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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