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Chow-chow

A pickled relish of green tomatoes, cauliflower, cucumbers, horseradish, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Layer the sliced tomatoes, cauliflower, cucumbers, and horseradish in a stone jar, sprinkling salt between layers.

  2. Let it stand for 24 hours.

  3. Drain off the water and place the mixture in a porcelain-lined kettle.

Cook and jar

  1. Cover with vinegar and boil for 15 minutes.

  2. Wet the ground mustard with cold vinegar and stir it in just before removing from heat to avoid bitterness.

  3. Transfer to jars and cover.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Cauliflower + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Cauliflower + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together139 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Form the bulk of the relish and, once salted and drained, give it a firm, chunky texture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables during the 24-hour rest, firming them and concentrating flavor.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the relish and gives it its sharp, tangy taste.
Ground mustard
Adds pungent flavor and thickens the relish; stirring in late keeps its sharpness from turning bitter.
Mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent bite and crunchy texture to the relish.

The step that matters

Stirring in the ground mustard just before removing from heat. Ground mustard turns bitter when overheated for long, so it is wetted with cold vinegar and added at the end to keep its sharp flavor.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cauliflower, cucumber, horseradish, clove, cinnamon, mustard):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cauliflower, cucumber, horseradish, clove, cinnamon, 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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