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Chow Chow

A pickled relish made from tomatoes, onions, peppers, cucumbers, cabbage, spices, 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 the vegetables

  1. Combine tomatoes, onion, green peppers, cucumbers, and cabbage in a bowl.

  2. Let the mixture stand overnight.

  3. Sprinkle ½ cup of coarse sea salt over the vegetables.

  4. In the morning, drain off the brine.

Season and cook

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

  2. Cover with vinegar and 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

Cabbage
Provides the bulk and a firm, crisp texture that holds up during long cooking.
Cucumbers
Add crunch and fresh body to the relish after the salting and cooking.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables, firming them and pulling off excess brine.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that pickles the vegetables and preserves the relish.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Tomatoes
Contribute moisture and tang that blend into the relish during boiling.

The step that matters

Drain off the brine in the morning. Salting draws out a large amount of liquid from the vegetables. Pouring off that brine removes excess salt and water, so the relish does not turn overly salty or watery once the vinegar is added and it is boiled.

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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