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Sauce

Old Virginia Chow Chow

A pickled relish of tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, celery, and spices, preserved in salt, vinegar, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 ↓

Old Virginia Chow Chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, and celery very fine.

  2. Cover the mixture with coarse sea salt and let it stand for 24 hours.

  3. Drain the brine thoroughly.

Cook the chow chow

  1. Cover the mixture with vinegar and add the sugar.

  2. Scald the mixture in a porcelain kettle for 1 hour.

  3. Remove from heat and add horseradish, mustard seed, cloves, spice, ginger, and ground mustard.

Store and age

  1. Tie it up tightly and let it stand for 1 month before using.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide bulk and tartness that give the relish its body after long cooking.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar and sharp spices.
Vinegar
Acidity preserves the chopped vegetables and gives the relish its tang.
Cabbage
Adds crisp texture and bulk that softens during scalding.
Horseradish
Contributes sharp pungency that mellows during aging.
Mustard seed
Adds sharp flavor and a slight texture to the relish.

The step that matters

Draining the brine thoroughly. Salt draws water out of the vegetables. Residual brine left in the mixture would make the relish overly salty and can dilute the vinegar and sugar, affecting flavor and keeping quality.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, celery, vinegar, sugar, horseradish, 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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