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Chow Chow

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Chow Chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Sprinkle the sliced tomatoes with salt and let them stand overnight, then drain.

  2. Chop the tomatoes, onions, cabbage, and peppers separately.

Cook and jar

  1. In a large pot, combine vinegar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil.

  2. Stir in the chopped vegetables and spices, and bring the mixture to a boil again.

  3. Pour the hot mixture into glass jars and seal.

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. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + cabbagetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 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 relish and release moisture when salted and drained.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the sliced tomatoes, firming them and reducing excess liquid.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the relish and gives it its sharp flavor.
Brown sugar
Balances the vinegar with sweetness and helps create a thick, syrupy liquid.
Onions
Add sharp savory flavor and body to the mixture as they cook.
Cabbage
Adds crisp texture and bulk that holds up during long simmering.

The step that matters

Draining the salted tomatoes. Salting draws out water; if the tomatoes are not drained well, the excess liquid dilutes the vinegar and sugar syrup, which can weaken preservation and leave the relish watery.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cabbage, pepper, vinegar, sugar, allspice, cinnamon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cabbage, pepper, vinegar, sugar, allspice, 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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