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Chow-chow

A pickled vegetable relish made with cabbage, cauliflower, green beans, cucumbers, celery, onions, peppers, tomatoes, sugar, mustard, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Green beans and beans share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 36 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine all vegetables in a large bowl.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix sugar, ground mustard, mustard seed, turmeric, celery seed, and black pepper.

Make and jar

  1. Add the vinegar to the vegetable mixture and stir well.

  2. Let the mixture sit for a few hours to allow flavors to meld.

  3. Transfer to jars and seal 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. Green beans + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together36 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

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

  3. Cabbage + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

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

  4. Cauliflower + beanstop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Cauliflower + green beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together75 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the relish and gives it a crisp, sturdy texture.
Cucumbers
Adds crunch and fresh moisture that stays firm during pickling.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its tang.
Mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavor that deepens as the relish sits.
Ground mustard
Adds pungency and warmth that spreads through the vinegar brine.

The step that matters

Sealing the jars after the flavors meld. Vinegar acidity protects the relish only when the jars are sealed tightly, keeping air and spoilage microbes out while the vegetables cure.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, cauliflower, green beans, beans, cucumber, celery, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, cauliflower, green beans, beans, cucumber, celery, pepper. 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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