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Preserve

Chow Chow

A pickled vegetable relish made with cabbage, peppers, onions, cucumbers, green tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, mustard seeds, turmeric, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,281 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chow Chow

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the cabbage, green peppers, onions, cucumbers, and green tomatoes finely.

  2. Combine all chopped vegetables in a large bowl and sprinkle with salt.

  3. Let sit for 24 hours.

  4. Drain the vegetables and rinse them under cold water.

Cook and jar

  1. In a pot, combine sugar, vinegar, mustard seeds, turmeric, and the rinsed vegetables.

  2. Bring to a boil.

  3. Simmer for 30 minutes.

  4. Pour into sterilized jars and seal while hot.

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. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Cabbage + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 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

Cabbage
Provides the bulk and a crisp, firm texture that holds up after pickling.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness to the relish.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the relish its tang.
Salt
Draws water out of the chopped vegetables, helping them soften and lose excess moisture.
Mustard seeds
Add a sharp, pungent flavor that develops during simmering.
Turmeric
Gives the relish its yellow color and an earthy aroma.

The step that matters

Salting and resting the vegetables for 24 hours. Salt pulls moisture out of the chopped vegetables through osmosis. Draining and rinsing afterward removes the excess salt, so the relish stays crisp and is not overly salty once simmered in the vinegar mixture.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, onion, cucumber, sugar, vinegar, mustard. 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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