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Chow Chow Pickle

A pickled relish of cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, peppers, and spices in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,281 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chow Chow Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Combine sliced cabbages, chopped green tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, sliced onions, and chopped green peppers in a large bowl.

  2. Mix in 1 pound of coarse sea salt and let the mixture stand overnight.

Make the pickle

  1. In the morning, combine 1 gallon of vinegar, 1 pound of white mustard seed, 4 pints of sugar, 1 ounce of celery seed, 1 pint of grated horseradish, ½ teaspoon of black pepper, 3 teaspoons of ground mustard, 1 ounce of turmeric, 2 teaspoons of powdered cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of powdered cloves, and 2 teaspoons of powdered allspice in a large pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add the vegetables and cook until thick, stirring well.

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

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

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 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. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 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

Cabbages
Provides the bulk of the crisp, chunky texture in the pickle.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables, firming them and helping them keep their crunch.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp flavor.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness.
White mustard seed
Adds pungent, sharp mustard flavor to the pickle.
Green tomatoes
Add tart body and bulk that thickens the pickle as it cooks.

The step that matters

Cook the vegetables until thick. Cooking the salted vegetables in the hot vinegar mixture softens them and lets the liquid reduce and thicken; stopping too early leaves the pickle thin and watery, while stirring keeps the bottom from scorching.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, cucumber, onion, pepper, vinegar, mustard, 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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