Name: Handy Chow Chow
Ingredients: 1 head of cabbage, finely chopped; 6 green peppers, finely chopped; 6 green tomatoes, finely chopped; 2 teaspoons mustard; coarse sea salt to taste; vinegar to wet; optional: a pinch of cloves; optional: a pinch of allspice

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Handy Chow Chow

Ingredients

Directions

Chop the cabbage, green peppers, and green tomatoes very finely.
Add the mustard, salt, and enough vinegar to moisten the mixture.
If desired, add a little cloves and allspice.
Mix well and store in a jar. It will keep for a long time.

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.

Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,928 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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, giving crunch and body once finely chopped.
Green tomatoes: Add tartness and moisture to the chopped mixture.
Green peppers: Add fresh, vegetal flavour and crunch to the relish.
Mustard: Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the vinegar.
Vinegar: Moistens the mixture and provides acidity that helps preserve it.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, pepper, tomato, mustard, vinegar, allspice):

Tarragonfits better
Thymefits better
Dillfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, tomato, mustard, vinegar, allspice. 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.