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Chow-chow

A pickled relish of finely chopped vegetables in a vinegar and sugar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and cauliflower match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 584 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop all vegetables very fine.

  2. Cover with a good sprinkling of coarse sea salt and water overnight.

  3. Bring to a boil, then drain.

Make the mixture and bottle

  1. In a pot, boil together malt vinegar, brown sugar, mustard, flour, and turmeric.

  2. Pour the boiling mixture over the vegetables and bottle.

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 + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  3. Beans + cauliflowertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 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

Malt vinegar
Acidifies the pickle, giving sharpness and helping preserve the vegetables.
Brown sugar
Balances the sharp vinegar with sweetness.
Mustard
Adds pungent, sharp flavour that complements the vinegar.
Flour
Thickens the hot vinegar mixture so it coats the vegetables.
Turmeric
Gives the relish its bright yellow colour.

The step that matters

Salting overnight and draining after boiling. Salt draws water out of the chopped vegetables, and draining after boiling removes more of it. Removing this moisture keeps the relish from becoming watery when the hot vinegar mixture is added.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cucumber, celery, beans, cauliflower, pepper, malt):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cucumber, celery, beans, cauliflower, pepper, malt. 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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