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Preserve

Mustard Chow-chow

A pickled vegetable relish made with tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, peppers, cauliflower, mustard, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Mustard Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Wash the tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, green peppers, and red peppers thoroughly.

  2. Cut the tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, green peppers, and red peppers into small pieces.

  3. Layer the cut vegetables with 3 cups of coarse sea salt.

  4. Let the mixture sit overnight.

  5. Drain the salted vegetables.

  6. Wash the vegetables.

  7. Drain again for 2 hours.

Cook the chow-chow

  1. In a pot, bring the vinegar, mustard, mustard seed, celery seed, and curry powder to a boil.

  2. Add the pickled vegetables (except the cauliflower) and boil for 40 minutes.

  3. Boil the cauliflower separately for 5 minutes.

  4. Add the boiled cauliflower to the pot.

  5. Boil the mixture for an additional 20 minutes.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

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

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

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

  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 tartness that the vinegar and sugar balance in the relish.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables so they stay crisp and firm in the pickle.
Vinegar
Acidifies the mixture, preserving the vegetables and giving the pickle its sharp flavor.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard with sweetness.
Mustard
Adds pungent heat and the characteristic yellow color and flavor of mustard chow-chow.
Cauliflower
Adds firm texture and bulk; cooked separately so it does not turn too soft.

The step that matters

Drain the salted vegetables thoroughly before cooking. Salt draws out water; leftover brine and moisture dilute the vinegar and sugar syrup, weakening preservation and flavor, and excess water makes the pickle watery.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cucumber, pepper, vinegar, sugar, mustard, celery. 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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