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Tomato Chow-chow

A pickled vegetable mixture of tomatoes, cabbage, onions, cucumbers, and spices, preserved in vinegar and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Tomato Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop tomatoes, cabbage, onions, and cucumbers into small pieces, sprinkle with salt, and let sit overnight.

  2. Drain off the brine, mix equal parts vinegar and water, let stand for 24 hours, then drain again.

Make the pickle

  1. Add the spices to the mixture.

  2. Boil vinegar with brown sugar until dissolved, then pour the hot mixture over the vegetables.

  3. Repeat this process for three mornings.

  4. Finally, add the mustard and stir in when the mixture is nearly cold.

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. Cucumber + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 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
Supply the bulk of the chow-chow and absorb the vinegar and sugar syrup.
Cabbage
Adds crisp texture that holds up through repeated soaking in hot vinegar.
Onions
Add savory depth and aroma as they soften in the brine and vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the vegetables and sharpens the overall flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar and spices.
White mustard seed
Contributes pungent flavor that mellows during the long soak in vinegar.

The step that matters

Adding the mustard when nearly cold. Mustard seed's pungent compounds are volatile and fade with prolonged heat, so adding it only once the mixture has cooled keeps its sharp flavor. Adding it while hot would dull the bite.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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