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Chow-chow

A pickled vegetable mixture of green tomatoes, onions, peppers, cucumbers, and cabbage seasoned with salt, spices, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and cucumber are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the chopped green tomatoes, onions, green peppers, cucumbers, and cabbage in a large bowl.

  2. Sprinkle 1 cup of coarse sea salt over the vegetables and let them stand overnight.

  3. In the morning, drain off the brine.

Cook

  1. Add celery seed, turmeric, cayenne pepper, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, black pepper, and cloves to the vegetables.

  2. Pour in enough vinegar to cover the mixture.

  3. Boil for 2 hours.

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. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  2. Celery + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  4. Cucumber + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,102 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 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 a tart, fresh body that softens during the long boil.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a firm, crisp-tender texture after cooking.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables, firming them and helping preserve the mixture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the relish and gives it its sharp flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Turmeric
Gives the relish its yellow color and an earthy, warm flavor.

The step that matters

Draining the brine after the overnight salt rest. Salt pulls a large amount of liquid from the vegetables overnight. Draining it off removes excess salt and water, so the vegetables keep their texture and the vinegar mixture is not diluted or overly salty.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, cucumber, cabbage, celery, turmeric, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, cucumber, cabbage, celery, turmeric, 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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Relish 49Pickle 25Pickles 16Tomato 9Cucumber 4Salad 3 See all 120 →

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