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Chow Chow

A pickled relish of cucumbers, onions, peppers, and cauliflower flavored with mustard flour, cayenne, turmeric, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and cauliflower match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 584 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Chow Chow

Ingredients

Directions

Brine and prepare

  1. Soak cucumbers, onions, peppers, and cauliflower in a strong brine for 2 days.

  2. Drain and rinse the vegetables with lukewarm water.

  3. Parboil the onions for 5 minutes, then cool them in cold water and drain.

Make the pickle

  1. In a copper basin, combine the cucumbers, onions, peppers, and cauliflowers.

  2. Mix mustard flour with 1 pint of lukewarm water, cayenne pepper, and turmeric.

  3. Add enough vinegar to cover the vegetables and simmer until tender.

Bottle

  1. Remove from heat, let cool, and transfer to wide-mouthed bottles, sealing tightly.

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 + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

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

  2. Cauliflower + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together514 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  4. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Cucumbers
Provide the main crisp vegetable body that holds its texture through brining and simmering.
Mustard flour
Thickens the vinegar sauce and adds pungent mustard flavor to the pickle.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its bright yellow color and an earthy, slightly bitter note.
Cider or wine vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp tang.
White onions
Add mild sweetness and aroma that mellow during brining and simmering.

The step that matters

Simmering until tender. Simmering in vinegar softens the vegetables, but overcooking turns them mushy. Watch texture closely so they stay firm while the sauce thickens with the mustard flour.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, pepper, cauliflower, mustard, flour, turmeric, cider):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, pepper, cauliflower, mustard, flour, turmeric, cider. 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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