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Chow-chow

A pickled vegetable relish made from green tomatoes, cabbage, cucumbers, celery, vinegar, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the green tomatoes, cabbage, cucumbers, and celery.

  2. Salt the tomatoes and cabbage separately and let them stand for a few hours.

  3. Drain the salted vegetables overnight.

Cook and season

  1. In the morning, mix all the vegetables together.

  2. Heat the mixture in weak vinegar.

  3. Drain again.

  4. Add 2 quarts of vinegar, 1 pound of sugar, celery seed, cinnamon, whole cloves, and turmeric.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 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 the bulk and body of the relish once salted and cooked.
Cabbage
Adds crisp texture that holds up after salting and cooking.
Cucumbers
Contribute crunch and fresh, mild flavor to the mixture.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the relish its tang.
Sugar
Balances the sharp acidity of the vinegar with sweetness.

The step that matters

Salting and draining the vegetables. Salt draws water out of the tomatoes and cabbage through osmosis. Thorough draining removes that liquid so the relish stays firm rather than watery once the vinegar is added.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cucumber, celery, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cucumber, celery, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, clove. 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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