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Another Chow Chow

A pickled cabbage dish with mustard seeds, peppers, cucumbers, onions, allspice, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove 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 ↓

Another Chow Chow

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large jar, mix the chopped cabbage, mustard seeds, red pepper, cucumbers, onions, ground allspice, pepper, cloves, ginger, horseradish, and green celery.

  2. Boil enough vinegar to cover the mixture, adding 2 ounces of sugar for every quart of vinegar.

  3. Pour the boiling vinegar over the mixture in the jar 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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Mustard + cucumbertop 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

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the relish and gives it a crisp, crunchy texture.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the mixture and gives it its sharp flavor.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Mustard seeds
Contribute pungent, sharp flavor when steeped in the vinegar.
Cucumbers
Add crisp texture and fresh bulk to the mixture.
Onions
Add savory depth and pungency to the relish.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling vinegar over the mixture and seal tightly. The vinegar must be hot and cover the vegetables fully so the acid and heat reach the mixture and it keeps. Sealing the jar traps the liquid around the vegetables, so they stay submerged and don't spoil.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, mustard, pepper, cucumber, allspice, clove, ginger):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, mustard, pepper, cucumber, allspice, clove, ginger. 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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