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Chow-chow

A pickled vegetable relish of green tomatoes, cabbage, onions, and peppers with vinegar, spices, and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the green tomatoes, cabbage, white onions, and Mexican peppers.

  2. Sprinkle the chopped vegetables with salt and black pepper, then let them stand overnight.

  3. In the morning, drain off all the water.

Cook

  1. Add vinegar, nutmegs, ground cinnamon, whole cloves, and stick cinnamon (in little bags) to the vegetables.

  2. Cook for 15 minutes.

  3. Just after it comes to a boil, add mustard mixed with a little vinegar.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 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

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk and tart flavour that the pickle is built around.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a crisp texture that softens during cooking.
White onions
Contribute savoury sweetness and aroma as they cook down.
Mexican peppers
Add heat and pungency to the mixture.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Salt
Draws water out of the vegetables, firming them and helping preserve them.

The step that matters

Draining the salted vegetables in the morning. Salt draws out a large amount of water overnight. Draining it fully keeps the vegetables crisp and stops the finished pickle from being watery and diluted.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cabbage, pepper, vinegar, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cabbage, pepper, vinegar, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove. 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.

More chow-chow recipes

Tomato 9Relish 8Mustard 6Virginia 5Pickle 4 See all 29 →

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